Happy Cinco de Mayo month! Let’s make enchiladas.
I have cooked enchiladas once before (the salsa verde variety, not the red-sauce kind), but I opted for this recipe because it also incorporates guacamole, which is on the short list of my favorite foods.
I made my own guacamole and my own enchilada sauce, but the recipe doesn’t require that and actually doesn’t even include instructions for doing it. I kept my guacamole super simple and just mixed three avocados with some canned pineapple and sun-dried tomatoes—a nod to a prepared guacamole someone picked up for me at a grocery store that I totally loved.
I did follow a separate recipe for the enchilada sauce that includes a lot of garlic and some chipotle chilis in adobo sauce. It was easy—dump the ingredients and let them simmer. The sauce made the dish. It was smoky and spicy and just delicious.
The enchilada recipe seems to suggest you’re supposed to cook and shred your own chicken, but I cheated and bought a rotisserie chicken. I pulled off the skin and then shredded the pieces of meat. This yields more than two cups of chicken, so I put more than the recommended two cups in my enchiladas. No regrets.
The great part about this recipe is that once you have all the components, you just mix, assemble and bake. I didn’t measure anything. (See my above note about the chicken.) I am sure I also went overboard on the guacamole and the cheese, but that is what makes these delicious. I would bet you could substitute black beans or any meat for the chicken and add queso or basically anything else that feels right. Admittedly, I did end up with more filling than my tortillas would accommodate, which I plan to save and eat with tortilla chips.
The recipe says to heat up the corn tortillas in a skillet, so I did, but honestly, I am not sure how worthwhile it was. They weren’t super pliable when I took them out of the package, but I think part of that was because they had been frozen. Next time, I would skip this step and just let them sit out longer.
I used the 6-inch tortilla shells the recipe recommended and wasn’t able to fit all 12 into my 9-by-13-inch pan, so I divided mine among two.
This dish is great and is one of my favorite new recipes I have tried in a while.
RECIPE:
Ingredients:
2 cups of cooked and shredded chicken breast
1 regular size can of diced tomato with green chilies, drained (Rotel)
4 green onions, diced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 6-oz. packets of organic wholly guacamole
12 6-inch corn tortillas
2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups red enchilada sauce (canned or homemade)
Directions:
1. Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.
2. At this point, the chicken should be cooked and shredded. Add the chicken to a bowl and mix in the Rotel, onions, cilantro and guacamole. Be sure this is coated well.
3. Next, using a small skillet, warm up the corn tortillas for 2 to 3 minutes to make them more pliable to use.
4. Fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture, then fold them and place seam side down on a greased 9×13 baking dish.
5. Once you have repeated this for the remaining tortillas, pour the enchilada sauce evenly over the dish and then sprinkle evenly with the cheese.
6. Bake for 15 minutes until the cheese is fully melted.
7. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve.
SOURCE: mommyhatescooking.com