Chicken Enchiladas

My family LOVES some good Tex-Mex/ Mexican food! My Bean and Beef Enchiladas (Recipe coming soon) are my husbands favorite but Chicken Enchiladas are my personal favorite! 

Be forewarned, enchiladas are a more involved recipe. It is easy enough anyone can follow but it is a more extensive prep list. This definitely isn't a last minute dinner throw together so give yourself a good hour and a half to start cooking before you want to actually start serving dinner. 

I also made some Spanish rice and refried beans to go with this. This recipe makes 1 casserole dish of about 10 enchiladas. I tripled this for my family of 2 adults, a teenage boy, and 2 toddlers ate an entire casserole dish and left with with almost a full second dish for lunches the next day. This recipe does reheat deliciously!    

Ingredients

FOR THE ENCHIladas:

• 1 rotisserie chicken (will have lots of leftover chicken for other recipes)
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth (20oz)
• 1 -4oz cans diced green chilies
• 3 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 cups of sour cream (8oz)
• 3 tbsp
• 1 pack corn tortillas (will have lots of extra)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 cups Mexican Cheese blend
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• FOR THE spanish rice:

• 2 cups of minute white rice
• 1 -16oz salsa jar (Herdez is the best) 
• 2 cups of water




utensils you will need:

• 1 small round frying pan
• tongs
• plate with paper/tea towels for excess grease
• casserole dish
• large sauce pan
• fork or whisk
• dish to hold shredded chicken
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Directions

FOR THE enchiladas:

1. With hands pull chicken off your store bought rotisserie chicken and shred into smaller chunks
2. Preheat oven to 350 and assemble supplies because this part can go by pretty fast.       
3. Heat a shallow amount of oil in small frying pan. You need just enough oil to almost cover a single tortilla. Turn burner to medium heat or 4/5 depending on your stove and cook ware. If the oil is to hot the tortillas will burn and stick to the pan. 
4. Test oil to make sure it is hot enough to fry. Easiest way is to run a couple fingers under the water real quick and flick the excess water on your fingers into the oil. If the oil bubbles and pops then its ready. If not then wait a bit longer. If the oil isn't hot enough then the tortillas will simply soak up the oil and wont get crisp. 
5. Have your small plate and paper towels ready as well as your tongs. 
6. Once the oil is ready, place a single corn tortilla in the oil. The tortilla only needs to sit int he oil for about a minute before using your tongs, flipping and removing from the oil. The tortilla may kind of puff up and that is fine too. It will deflate once removed from heat.
7. This is pretty fast and is only to kind of crisp up the tortilla as well as make it more flexible. I knows this sounds counter productive but trust. If you were to skip this step and try to roll a corn tortilla without first frying, then it will very easily break apart and crumble while you are trying to roll it. 
8. Because the enchilada must be made while the tortilla is still hot, I often recruit my husband to help out here. One person fries while the other fills and rolls. This can absolutely be done solo you just need to remove your frying pan from heat while you fill and roll your enchilada so your oil does not burn. 
9. Place your fried tortilla on the paper towels to blot excess oil. You are going to go through a few towels.
10. Put blotted tortilla in casserole dish and fill with a tablespoon of chicken and top with cheese. Avoid the urge to overfill. If too full these will not roll properly 
11. Roll filled enchiladas so the ends are open and the seem is face down. 
12. Put oiled frying pan back on the burner. Oil should still be plenty hot enough though you may need to add a smidge more oil in between each tortillas or so.  
13. Repeat frying and rolling process until you are out of room in your dish or you feel you've made enough for your family. 
14. Congratulations! You have officially made it through the most labor intensive part. It's easily sailing from here :)                                                                                              

FOR THE Sauce:

1. Have all supplies ready. This stage goes by quick too.
2. Melt butter in your medium to large sauce pan
3. Stir flour into the melted butter immediately and whisk for about 1 minute or until well mixed It is going to be very clumpy.
4. Add broth and whisk until smooth. 
5. Cook broth mixture over medium heat until it is thick and starts to boil/ bubble.
6. Remove pan from heat and stir for a minute. If the broth mixture is too hot (boiling) the sour cream will curdle.  Add in sour cream and chilies. 
7. Pour the mixture over your rolled enchiladas
8. Top with remaining cheese     
9. Bake in oven on middle rack for 20-30 minutes depending on your stove and how many enchiladas you wound up making. 
10. When timer goes off, turn on the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese starts to brown.      



FOR THE rice:

1. While the enchiladas are baking, clean our the sauce pot, fill with 2 cups of water, and bring to a boil
2. Once boiling, add 2 cups of rice and entire jar of salsa
3. Stir well, put lid on pot and turn heat off leaving the pot on the still hot burner