Green Chicken Enchiladas

Posted on by aurorameyer

Easy at home Green Chicken Enchiladas by Dispatches from the Castle
Using the tomatillo salsa recipe as a base, we made these amazing Green Chicken Enchiladas. While a bit time consuming, the recipe makes more than enough to freeze half and reheats very well. If you plan to freeze, just leave off the cheese!

Ingredients:
1/4 to 1/2 cup tomatillo salsa (for the chicken mixture), plus 1/4 for the bottom of the pan and about 1/2 to 2/3 cup for the top (under the cheese)
2 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 medium Onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon Ground cumin
1/4 cup All-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock
Chopped cilantro leaves
3 pounds boneless, skinless Chicken breasts
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 large Flour tortillas (we used the burrito sized ones)
1/2 pound Monterey Jack (or Mexican blend) cheese, shredded
2 cups Sour cream, if desired
Chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves for garnish, if desired

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roast chicken in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until cooked though.  Let cool and then shred.  Set aside. For more flavor, season the chicken with salt, pepper and cumin prior to roasting.  While the chicken is roasting, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized , approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for another minute. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn’t burn.  Gradually add the chicken stock. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens. Turn off the heat, add 1/4 cup of the tomatillo salsa and some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

To make the Enchiladas, take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa. Mix the salsa, cheese and the chicken mixture together in a bowl.  Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix  in an Enchilada. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll to enclose it. Place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all eight tortillas. Finally pour the reserved enchilada sauce and top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Garnish with cilantro and tomato, sour cream and guacamole if desired.

My opinion:
Perfect for a hot, summer evening.

J’s Chicken and Dumplings

Posted on by aurorameyer

Just like with the Chicken Pot Pie, J and his cousin have spent several years perfecting a replica of their grandmother’s famous Chicken and Dumplings. While the made from scratch noodle recipe is lost, they successfully recreated the rest of it. Here’s their recipe.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Or to be more traditional you can use a whole chicken) boiled and shredded
2 cans cream of chicken soup
32 ounces chicken stock
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
8 flour tortillas, cut into strips
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into strips or diced

Directions:
If the chicken isn’t cooked, boil it. Once it’s cooked, shred it using two forks. Then combine the rest of the ingredients, except the tortillas and eggs, in a large pot. Stir to combine. Bring to a slow boil over medium high heat. Turn to low, add the tortillas and eggs. Cover and let simmer at least 20 minutes.

My opinion:
This is the perfect dish to have right after a taco night or fajita night when you have left over tortillas and don’t want them to go to waste. You can also make this in the slow cooker, so dinner is ready when you get home in the evening.

Homemade Chips and Guacamole

Posted on by aurorameyer

I love chips and guacamole, even a little more than chips and salsa. While thanks to an excellent restaurant on the San Antonio Riverwalk, Boudros, I’ve nearly perfected my guacamole recipe, the chips part has eluded me.

I’ve tried flour tortillas and corn tortillas, but the ones that seem to work best and hold up to the heavy guacamole are the whole wheat ones.

Tortilla Chip Ingredients:
whole wheat tortillas, cut into 4 to 6 pie pieces (depending on how big you want your chips)
oil (we used vegetable)
sea salt

Tortilla Chip Directions
Heat the oil. (We used a cast iron skillet.) Put the tortilla pieces in individually. Depending on how hot your oil is, you might need to flip after just 10 seconds. You’ll see the edges start to brown. Flip. Wait another 10 seconds and remove from heat. We drained on paper towels.

My opinion:
These held up very well to the heavy guacamole. They aren’t as tasty or thin as store-bought or restaurant made chips, but are still lovely. I’ll be sure to add the salt when the chips are still hot next time.

Guacamole Ingredients:
one or two diced avocados
roasted tomato (we used diced fresh when we can’t find roasted)
1 serrano pepper, minced
roughly chopped cilantro (to taste)
1 tbs fresh lime juice (bottled is fine if you don’t have fresh)
1 tbs fresh orange juice (bottled is fine if you don’t have fresh)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Serve.

My opinion:
As I mentioned before this is my absolute all time favorite guacamole ever. If you want to up the spice level, add another serrano pepper. Delicious!

Super Easy Weeknight Enchiladas

Posted on by aurorameyer

Easy Weeknight Enchiladas by Dispatches from the Castle
UPDATE: We made this again using homemade hot Enchilada sauce, whole wheat tortillas (they hold the sauce better and don’t fall apart as easily), onion and garlic powder (we were out of fresh). The homemade hot Enchilada sauce recipe is: 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon oregano, 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. These additions made all the difference in the world! The Enchiladas were spicy and delicious! I can’t wait to make this again!

This super easy recipe made enough for us to freeze half for another meal.

Ingredients:
10 flour (or corn) tortillas
Enchilada sauce (or make your own, we weren’t that adventurous, yet!)
8 ounces Mexican blend cheese
1 pound ground beef (you could also use chicken)
oil to coat pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the oil in the pan. Brown the ground beef. Drain. In a mixing bowl add all but about a cup of the cheese, ground beef and half of the Enchilada sauce. Mix. Spoon mixture onto tortillas. Roll and place in a greased (or lightly oiled) 8 inch pan. Once all the tortillas are in the pan, pour the remaining sauce over the Enchiladas. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Put in oven and cook for about 12-15 minutes.

My opinion:
Next time we will make our own sauce or at least add green chilies for more flavor. While good, this dish was a little bland for our tastes. We’ll also add onions and green peppers to the beef and cook it a little longer in the oven, we only cooked them for 12 minutes. All in all, we would make this again.

Reminder: #cookchat returns on Thursday January 20, a 8 p.m. CST. Join Matt LaCasse and I for an hour of food filled conversation.