Monday, January 30, 2012

Green Chicken Enchiladas. Yum!


I think that something obviously must be going on here, because so far every recipe i've tried has turned out...delicious!  I guess it's because I am doing things so simple you'd have to be really distracted to mess up :)  I recently read a post by Tatum Norris on FB who said "I often cook straight from online recipes, and always read the reviews to get a good feel for it first. It just kills me when a reviewer says that they tried the recipe, but substituted the flour, sugar, and milk with oatmeal, pepper, and orange juice, and it turned out terribly, so it deserves no stars. I say if you do more than tweak it, don't rate it."
I agree with this wholeheartedly! Also, some people tweak it so much and then rate it with 5 stars.  How can I know which recipe to follow?  And on another note, sometimes all the ways they tweak it just overwhelms me to death.  I'm a beginner cook here.  When I look at a simple recipe, I want it to stay simple. 
This was a slight rant, and also kind of hypocritical because I seem to be tweaking every recipe I'm trying here on this blog.  So, I guess if my tweaking gets too crazy just laugh and say i'm like the pot calling the kettle black. 

So, I tried out some green chicken enchiladas. So so so good.  And so so so easy.  Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken
breast halves
12 (10 inch) flour tortillas
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Monterey
Jack cheese
1 (19 ounce) can green enchilada sauce
Directions:
1.In a pot with enough water to cover, boil the chicken 25 minutes, or until juices run clear. Drain, cool, and shred.
2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
3.Fill each tortilla with equal amounts of chicken and cheese, reserving 1/4 cup cheese for topping. Roll tortillas to form enchiladas. Arrange enchiladas in the prepared baking dish. Cover with the enchilada sauce.
4.Bake enchiladas 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Top with reserved cheese, and continue baking 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

First item of business, like previously mentioned I always prefer to cook my chicken in a saucepan rather than boiling it.  This should be...
Helfpul Hint #4: In all instances possible, cook your chicken in a saucepan rather than boiling it in water.  Always seems to turn out better!
I like the flavor and texture much better AND it doesn't seem to get overcooked as much.  So for this recipe, I cut up the chicken into cubes and threw it in a saucepan with lemon juice, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper, and paprike.  If you don't have those spices, not to worry! It turns out great without.  However, I would recommend getting those at some point because they add some good flavor to quite a few recipes.  Also to note, 12 tortillas is way way too many.  The max I could fill with a decent load of chicken and cheese was 8.  And thats a lot anyway so i'd go with that.  If possible, buy the brand Las Palmas green enchilada sauce.  It seems to have the best flavor and it is the perfect thickness! Since this is the main ingredient, I don't know if i'd go with any other random brand. I didn't have 8 oz of monterey cheese, but i mixed what i had with cheddar and it was awesome.  And like all recipes so far, this had plenty of leftovers! Have fun.

P.s. Do NOT add more than the 19 oz of enchilada sauce.  When looking at the enchiladas covered with the sauce, they look a little...bare.  However, trust me on this! If you add more sauce, the tortillas just get really soggy and the texture is unbearable.  Air on the side of too little in this case.

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