Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
| 3 cans | Enchilada Sauce
Red or green, I like to use medium, but mild is fine too. Good brands are
Hatch or Old El Paso. You can also use 6 cups of Susan's
Red Chile Sauce Recipe.
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| 3-4 | boneless chicken breasts
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| 1 T | vegetable oil
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| 1 medium | onion, chopped
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| 1/2 pound | cheese, grated (colby, mild cheddar, or longhorn)
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| 12-14 | corn tortillas
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Notes
This recipe is a modification of one given to me by my friend
Cindy before I moved to Albuquerque, NM. My husband and I
have had a lot of fun (and have put on some weight)
experimenting with this recipe.
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Instructions
Marinate chicken pieces in 1/2 can of enchilada sauce (or one cup, if using home made)
all day or overnight. Reserve the other 1/2 can for later.
Bake chicken and sauce at 350° for 30
minutes. Allow to cool, then shred or cut into small pieces. Put the cut
chicken back in the baking pan with the sauce and mix. In a large
skillet (big enough to eventually hold the chicken), cook the onion in oil
until translucent and soft. Add the chicken and sauce to the onions and
heat through. Heat the oven to 350°.
Steaming, filling, rolling, and placing the tortillas is an
assembly-line process. First, prepare a 9x12 baking dish by pouring the
other 1/2 can of enchilada sauce (or 1 cup home made sauce) over the
bottom (this keeps the enchiladas from sticking or getting hard).
Fill a large shallow bowl with water and heat a small (tortilla-sized) frying pan
over fairly high heat.
- Dip a tortilla in the water then cook in the pan,
turning frequently until soft.
- Fill the steamed tortilla with a small
amount of chicken and grated cheese.
- Roll the tortilla and fillings together.
- Place the rolled enchilada in the
baking dish against the short side, in one corner.
Steam, fill and roll each
tortilla one at a time and place each one in the baking dish next to the
previous one until you reach the end of the pan. I can usually fit 8-10 from the top
to the bottom of the pan, depending on how much filling I've used. You should
be able to fit 4 more lengthwise (along the long side of the pan) next to
the row you just finished (2 next to each other at the top and 2 at the
bottom).
Distribute any leftover fillings over the top
of the enchiladas in the pan (or if you're my husband, steam a few more
tortillas and fill those to eat while the others are cooking). Pour the
2 remaining cans of sauce (or 4 cups if using home made sauce) over the top
of the enchiladas, making sure no tortillas are exposed. Top with remaining
cheese.
Bake, covered with aluminum foil at 350° for 15 minutes.
Remove foil and continue baking for 15 more minutes. Let stand for
10 minutes before serving. This serves 4 for us, but if you serve it
with beans and rice, you could definitely stretch it to 8 servings.
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