Self Cooking Challenge: The beginning of January, being it was a new year, I decided to start cooking at least one new meal per week. By "new" I mean something I haven't cooked before, an element/ingredient/technique in the recipe that I haven't done before. Not necessarily something with weirdo ingredients just something new to me. The purpose of this being that I have been super lazy in cooking lately. My excuse is that I am cooking for one, so its so much easier to eat a PB&J or bowl of cereal or some made up concoction instead of cooking a meal. Well, no more (at least once per week)! An added bonus is that I will have an already stocked up wealth of recipes to use for whatever the future might hold (family, serving, etc.)! The bright side of cooking is I can cook something at the beginning of the week and have it for at leeeast the next few days...ha.
So far, I have done something new every week. I will post the recipes I have done up until now at a later date. But for this week I decided to make Chicken Enchilada's with Green Sauce. Chicken Enchilada's I've made before.....but the green sauce, not so much. I love it in restaurants but never attempted it myself. So here's what I did...
Oh my yummmmy were they gooooood!!!!! :)
This serves probably about 3. The original recipe was for 6 but the website has a handy little calculator that will adjust the measurements for more or less servings.
**Before starting any of this I boiled 1 (it was huge) chicken breast in about 2 cups of salted water for about 30 minutes. I then shredded it using two forks = cooked chicken breast, shredded.
Ingredients: 11/2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, shredded -- 6 corn tortillas -- oil for pan-frying the tortillas -- 5 oz (or as much as you would like) Monterey Jack cheese, shredded -- 2-3 green onions, chopped -- 1/4 cup onion, chopped -- 2 tablespoons butter -- 2 tablespoons flour -- 1 cup chicken broth -- 1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chile's -- 1/2 cup sour cream -- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro (I used cilantro cubes and added it to the sauce - see below).
Here's the shredded chicken breast.
----> Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
----> Chop up the 1/4 cup of onion and 2-3 green onions. Shred the cheese, set aside.
----> Heat 2 tablespoons of oil (I used canola) in a skillet.
----> Once the oil is hot (a good way to test this is to put the handle of a wooden spoon in the oil, if it bubbles around the spoon handle, it is good to go) fry the tortillas one at a time for about 5 seconds on each side. It only takes a few seconds, they just need to be soft and pliable, not crunchy! Drain each tortilla and place between layers of paper towels to absorb the extra oil.
----> Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over low heat. Note: Do NOT burn! Yuck!
----> While whisking (this is important), slowly add the 2 tablespoons of flour. Whisk continually until the mixture comes to a boil. Fun note: This is called a rue (Another fun note: not sure on the spelling).
----> Continue whisking (I know its a lot of whisking), slowly add the 1 cup chicken broth. Keep on'a whiskin' until the rue :) thickens. It might seem like its not going to, but it will thicken, I promise!
----> Mix in the 1/2 cup sour cream, and 1 can of chopped chile's (used the whole can). Here is where I added the "cubed" cilantro as mentioned above. Stir this until blended. Turn your burner to low (do not let it come to a rolling boil).
----> While the sauce is heating ----> Go back to the waiting tortillas, time to fill them up! Add some chicken. Add some of the chopped onions and cheese, lots of cheese.
NOTE: Don't forget about your sauce heating on the stove. Stir it occasionally.
----> Roll up the tortillas and place in a GREASED baking pan with the seam down.
----> Repeat the fill and roll process until you have filled up your baking dish, like so:
----> Pour the sauce over the rolled up tortillas in your baking pan. Make sure it is all covered with sauce.
----> Bake for 20 minutes or until it is all nice and bubbly.
----> After 20 minutes, if you had any shredded cheese left over from the filling, sprinkle it on the top. Continue baking another 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and it becomes all bubbly again.
---> Plate it. Garnish with chopped green onions, any left over onions, cheese or whatever toppings you like.........and EAT!
Yep, it's this good!! ------->
These are the little cilantro cubes I was talking about. They are awesome! I found them in with the mexican food stuff at Walmart. Our store doesn't always have the freshest "fresh" cilantro. These are a great substitute. They come in a cube and you just smash/crumble them up into whatever! Love'em.
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