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.
3-4 boneless chicken breasts
1 T vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 pound cheese, grated (colby, mild cheddar, or longhorn)
12-14 corn tortillas
 

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.

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.

  1. Dip a tortilla in the water then cook in the pan, turning frequently until soft.
  2. Fill the steamed tortilla with a small amount of chicken and grated cheese.
  3. Roll the tortilla and fillings together.
  4. 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.

 

Something possessed me to put some of my favorite recipes on my web site back in 1995. I add a new one now and then when I discover something interesting. My recipes are generally combinations of favorite recipes I've found in cookbooks. They were developed through experimentation and lots of tasting!
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