Authentic Chicken Enchiladas

Category: Main Dishes | Blog URL: http://just-because-i-am-me.blogspot.com/2010/01/enchiladas.html

This recipe was entered in The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest, a compilation of the world’s best food blogs which was published in Fall 2010.

Photo: Shaina

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

1 onion, diced

1 can diced green chilis

1/2 pickled jalapeno (we used about 5 slices of jalapenos (pickled) in a jar)

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and pepper

1 cup Mexican Cheese blend (plus more for topping)

45 smalls Corn Tortillas (Do NOT use flour tortillas)

olive oil

1 can Enchilada sauce

Preparation

Season your thawed chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add a little bit of olive oil to your frying pan, add chicken, and cook through. Remove chicken from pan, then add diced onions to the pan. Turn heat to medium and let onions saute through. (You may need to add a little bit more oil to the pan.)

Meanwhile, chop up your chicken (or shred) very finely. When the onions are soft and translucent, add chicken back to the pan. Season your onions and chicken with garlic, cumin, and chili powder. Finely chop up your jalapeno and add that and your green chilis to your chicken mixture. Stir in your cheese. Now you are ready to assemble.

Heat up your olive oil in a small frying pan. Add your corn tortilla for about 20 seconds, flipping if the oil doesn't reach the top side. Doing this softens your tortilla so it won't break as you roll it. Do this with all your tortillas and drain on paper towels.

Take 2 cookie sheets and spray with cooking spray. Lay out a tortilla and add about 2 TBSP of chicken mixture to the middle of your tortilla. Roll up. Fill the remaining tortillas in the same way and line them up next to each other on your cookie sheet, so they are very close to each other, but not touching. This should make two rows on each of your cookie sheets.

If two pans are too much for your family, then at this point, take one pan and put it in your freezer. Once the enchiladas are frozen, remove them from the pan and stack them in a double lined ziploc freezer bag. When you want to make them, simply line them up again on a greased cookie sheet, let thaw for about an hour on the counter, then bake as instructed.)

Now, bake your enchiladas in the oven, at 400 degrees, for about 20 minutes. They should be lightly browned. Remove them from the oven and spoon over about 2TBSP of your enchilada sauce over the top of each enchilada. Then sprinkle the tops with cheese. Put the enchiladas back in the oven for about 7 minutes. After that, it's time to eat!