Chicken Enchiladas to bring in the new month and wring out the old!
12:06PM in Apr0n tagged chicken enchiladas, homemade enchilada sauce, how-to, january, mexican food, recipe 
so last night i made the chicken enchiladas. there's a first time for everything i guess. i was slightly less intimidated than i should have been. its basically simple, but there must be a finesse to the process to make it feel less spastic.
there are only a few things to do. i think i did them out of order. they are: (A) cook chicken, (B) prepare enchilada sauce, (C) roll|fry|bake tortillas. I went A|B|C, and I think I should have done B|A|C. fryi9ng the chicken, even slightly frozen went more quickly than i expected and i needed the sauce sooner than it wanted to cook.
enchilada sauce
so start with (B), make your enchilada sauce. begin with a few tablespoons of oil and prepare a roux with flour. let it brown a bit, then add diced garlic, coriander, paprika, chili powder and let it all come together a bit, stirring constantly. (adding the garlic, a solid, at that time may have been a problem though and i will update when i know.) add diced jalapeno and onions, allow to roast in the roux. then add a bunch (i don't mean that literally, but if you can stomach a full bunch go for it) of cilantro and crushed tomato. let simmer on uber-low for at least 10 minutes; 20 minutes if possible, or until rolls are ready to bake.
so good the stuffing evades photography
on to (A). dust your chicken with salt, crushed black pepper, and CaJohn's orange chipotle seasoning (or other chili powder). add some oil to your pans, throw chicken into pans, flip and dust again when ready. obviously you only want two flips. but if you're using frozen chicken it'll need some love spread around. note: if your pans aren't the same you may want to shuffle between them. when they're cooked, pull, let sit (5 minutes), then shred using your fingers (because theyre the best for shredding chicken, just make sure you wash them very well, and scrub under your fingernails), putting it in a large mixing bowl. add a diced jalapeno, can of diced tomatos, coriander, black pepper, oregano, marjoram, cilantro. mix (with your hands).
frying enchiladas, pre-ovenfor (C), its easy. leave the oil in the pans, heat it back up; preheat oven to 375F. for all of these steps you will want to use your hands. now roll up all the tortillas first with the open flap at the bottom (from the side it should look like an 'e' for enchilada!). once youve done that, drop each of the rolls in the oil. the purpose first is to seal them a bit (the second is to crispy them up). so when you drop the 'e'; roll it forward so the end is tucked into the middle. rinse and repeat and fry each of the bottoms of the rolls for about as long as the crispy level appeals to you. then pick them up and flip and do the opposite side until desired level of crispy is achieved.
now we transfer to the casserole dish. turn the low heat off the enchilada sauce. ladel a bit on the bottom of the dish (a la lasagna). throw some more cilantro on top of it. now try to first all your enchiladas in there; have an overflow casserole dish ready if not (and sufficient reserved enchilada sauce for both). once theyre all lined up, pour all the remaining sauce on top of the enchiladas.
did you have any left over meat mix and cilantro? great! throw it on top! got mexican blend cheese? great! throw it on top! now throw that bitch in the oven for 15 minutes. garnish with shredded lettuce, sliced black olives, sour cream. baby made some black beans and they were great with it too
worst pic but im still hungry.
