Thursday night is the new Friday night. And its your happy time on the couch watching football.
Looking around for something to eat during the game? Tired of delivery? Need to clear refrigerator space before you stock up for the week-end? Don’t want boring yet again? Need to impress your significant other?
Be the house hero and knock-out some home made chicken enchiladas. They are fast and easy if you plan ahead. The main ingredients are leftovers from prior days meals. The key activity is pulling things out of the refrigerator. That’s the tough part. It’s easy to stuff a fridge but it takes mental discipline and focus to pull things out.
Put down that beer. Keep the Sauvignon Blanc in the cupboard. Our recommended beverage is our JL WOOD Nouveau. Nouveau has the oomph to compliment and power through the heat and cheese of enchiladas. It is unabashedly fruit forward with a well balanced natural acidity.
Ingredients:
- Left over roti chicken (from Costco or any grocery store), chopped
- 1 or 2 cans of Hatch Green Chile Enchilada Sauce (others brands work well but Hatch has character and heat)
- Jack Cheese, shredded
- Medium sweet onion, chopped (regular yellow onion is ok)
- Flour tortillas, preferably thin, like Mission Organics Soft Taco
- Pepper
- Salt to taste
- Several dashes of Tabasco, to taste
- Condiments: Sour cream, guacamole salsa, tomato salsa (Tip: Guacamole salsa will last and not turn brown in the fridge; however, guacamole will. We usually buy fresh tubs in the refrigerator section of our grocery store. Our typical go-to is Casa Sanchez but there are other excellent choices out there.)
- Optional: Squeeze of lemon juice
- Optional: Small can of sliced black olives
- Optional: 1 or 2 chopped hard boiled eggs
- Optional: Small can of chopped Hatch green peppers
For the Mexican style rice:
- Left over rice from a previous meal or take-away meal
- Granulated garlic
- Rao’s Marinara Sauce (yes, not a typo!)
- More chopped onion
Preheat your oven: Set to bake and 375 degrees F.
Fill a small mixing bowl with chopped chicken, shredded cheese, and chopped onion. I simply take roti chicken and chop it into small pieces less than a half inch in size. You want approximately equal amounts of chicken and shredded cheese. I like an equal portion of chopped onions - you may not, you make the call.
If you’re short of chicken or want to make the mix richer, add the optional chopped green chile peppers, chopped hard boiled eggs, and sliced black olives. You can add one, none, or more of these; your choice.
Next, open a can of the green chile sauce and thoroughly wet the mixture in the bowl. While mixing, add several dashes of Tabasco. Be aware that the Hatch sauce has heat as well.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Also, optionally, you can add a squeeze of lemon juice.
We recommend either a 9x9 inch or 9x13 pan, metal or glass is fine. The smaller pan is perfect for 2 people.
Using the green chile sauce, pour some into the bottom of the pan and make sure its well coated.
Make the enchiladas by laying out one uncooked flour tortilla, spoon out chicken mixture onto the tortilla, in the center, from one side to the other. Roll-up the tortilla and place seam side down in the pan. Repeat until you run out of tortillas or mixture.
Next, pour enchilada sauce over every enchilada. Make sure every part of the tortillas are wet from the sauce.
Generously place shredded Jack cheese over the enchiladas.
Place into the pre-heated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes. You want to cook until the cheese just starts to brown.
When done, remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
Plate with sour cream, guacamole salsa and red salsa to taste.
Remove enchiladas with a long spatula. Two make a meal.
Serve with a glass of JL WOOD Nouveau.
Bonus side-dish trick: Enchiladas like to be paired with a side dish. A good choice is Mexican rice.
If you are a devotee of social media, there are all sorts of complicated recipes, both in terms of ingredients and technique.
Here’s a short cut: Using leftover rice from your last meal or take-away, put in the bottom of a sauce pan, over medium heat, with several tablespoons of water. Add some chopped onion. I like to add about a quarter to a third of an onion. Next, reach into your cupboard or fridge and add a splash of Rao’s Marinara tomato sauce. (No need to tell anyone that you did that!) Just a splash. Sprinkle in some granulated garlic. Stir over heat until the rice un-clumps and becomes hot. Avoid having the rice stick to the bottom of the pan; just add water if the mix becomes too dry.