When I was in grade school, my best friend’s mom made some awesome enchiladas for dinner. I was in LOVE. Since then (how many years ago was that?!), my memory of her dish has been the standard by which I measure good chicken enchiladas of this variety. I’ve been trying to crack the code, and I think this recipe gets pretty darn close!
I made these enchiladas on a busy week night and was able to throw them together really quickly. You know what saved me? An ingenious tip from my good pal, Melinda. She told me that you can cook chicken WHILE YOU SLEEP! Yep. Season some chicken breasts with salt and pepper, throw them in your crockpot, set it to LOW, and leave ’em there for about 8 hours (you can use a couple of tbsp. of water or chicken broth to keep them nice and moist). HOLY COW – cooked chicken at your fingertips for a WEEK’s worth of recipes!! Try it to save a boat load of time. And if you use the easy crockpot liners, it’s an added bonus of virtually NO CLEANUP for the first step! Sa-weet!
So…now that you know how easy this can be…let me share the recipe with you…
recipe:
8-10 soft taco size flour tortillas (or corn)
2 c. shredded cooked chicken
1 1/2 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
1/4 c. shredded habanero cheese (my grocer didn’t carry this so I used Cabot extra sharp white cheddar)
1 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
2 c. chicken broth
1 c. light sour cream
1 (4oz.) can diced green chilies
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. coriander (another word for dried cilantro)
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
fresh cilantro, for garnish
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400°. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Add the chicken broth a little at a time, whisking until smooth between pours so you don’t end up with chicken soup and mushy flour lumps. Cook over medium until thick and bubbly. This is probably the most time consuming part, but you have other stuff you can be doing while you wait (like shredding & mixing your cheeses). Don’t forget to stir occasionally!
Once thickened (I wasn’t sure how thick it should get, but I was happy when it was a bit runnier than the consistency of tomato soup), stir in the sour cream, 1/2 of the green chilies, and 1/2 of the cheese blend. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl combine chicken, spices, and remaining chilies and cheeses. Place an equal amount (about 1/4 c.) of the chicken mixture into each tortilla WITH a spoonful of the sour cream sauce. Roll and place seam down on a lightly greased 9×13″ pan. Continue until you’ve used all of your ingredients. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and bake for 25-30 minutes until sauce is bubbly and the edges begin to brown a bit. Remove from the oven and garnish with cilantro.
There you have it – get ready to chow down on something delicious!
Recipe courtesy of Life Made Simple.
* Spread the yummm when you follow me on Pinterest.
