Day 279-- Gringo chicken enchiladas

Prologue: 

I'm beginning to form a theory that maybe I'm not necessarily a picky eater like everyone thinks, but rather, I just don't like how restaurants prepare certain foods.  For instance, I've never liked soup that much, but once I started making my own I now suddenly do like soup.  So maybe what I don't like is canned, over-processed, or siiting-in-the-back-kitchen-for-6-hours soup.

And I have never liked enchiladas.  I've always found them to be way too saucy with not enough chicken, and the chicken that was featured was the fatty parts of the meat.  So when I got this weird craving for enchiladas I decided to make them my own my way, granted, the "gringo" way.  Gringo= Spanish slang to denote American foreigners--usually meant negatively but is used in SoCal with affection ex. the Dos Gringos restaurant chain.

As a gringo, I don't really like corn tortillas.  Sure, I'll use them for quesadillas if they're the only things in the refrigerator, but as a whole I just prefer flour.  Also, for this recipe I didn't use chipotle peppers because I'm a wimp, and I used black olives because they're yummy.  All that said, here it is:

Gringo Chicken Enchiladas

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Total time: 45ish minutes

Ingredients

3 tablespoon olive oil

1 rotisserie chicken 

salt and pepper

2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 red onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic

1 can of corn (low sodium)

5 canned whole green chilies, seeded

1 can chopped tomatoes

10-15 flour tortillas

1 packet of enchilada sauce (which will call for one 6oz can of tomato paste+ water)

1 cup of colby jack cheese

1 small can of sliced black olives drained

garnish, cilantro leaves or salsa

Directions

1.) Dice up your red onion and your garlic if you buy them whole (I always buy minced garlic in those small jars. 1/2 a teaspoon = 1 garlic clove).  Heat up a large pot and drizzle in about 2 teaspoons of the olive oil.  Pour in your diced onions and garlic, stirring occasionally so they cook, not burn.

2.) While those two things cook, use your hands to shred your rotisserie chicken into tiny strips.  Sprinkle the strips with the garlic powder, salt, and pepper

3.) Take your green chiles out of the can, de-seed them, and dice them up.  Open your can of corn and drain.  Open your can of olives and drain.  Open up your can of diced tomatoes, but don't drain.  Add the chiles, chicken, tomatoes, corn, olives, and the last tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and stir.

4.) Heat up your oven to 350 degrees.  Follow the directions of your enchilada sauce packet.  Mine called for medium sauce pot and required bring to boil 3 cups of water, one 6oz can of tomato paste, and the packet mix.  Once it boils, bring it down to low temperature for about 10 minutes so it can thicken.  

5.) While you're waiting for the enchilada sauce to thicken, grate your cheese for about 1 cup's worth.  You can also pull out your flour tortillas, cover them with a damp paper towel, and stick them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to make them more pliable.

6.) Pull out a medium size glass baking dish.  Fill it with half of the enchilada sauce.  Now take a tortilla and dip into the sauce to get the entire thing coated.  Fill the sauced tortilla with a good helping of the chicken/pepper/corn/olives/tomato mix.  Roll up and place the tortilla seem down in the baking dish.  Repeat for the rest of the tortillas until all of them are tightly packed in there.   Sprinkle with your cheese and extra olives if you wish.

7.) Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is golden.  Take out and garnish with some cilantro or salsa.  Done!

Review

Funny how people always seem wake up, come home, or suddenly get really hungry right as something is coming out of the oven, haha.  It was a bit hit actually.  "Why can't Mexican food taste like this when I order it?" said The Canadian, and the rest of the house quickly ate up the rest.

It's a perfect dish to mix things up from too many pasta and hamburger nights, and for all of the ingredients listed, it's really not that much of a chore as long as you have a can opener and your finger tips. If you like real Mexican food, you'll probably hate this dish.  But if you like cooking from a 3rd generation Mexican/Portuguese whose Spanish is limited to "hola" "buen", and "pulga" then this is the dish for you.  Happy cooking!