Restaurant quality green chicken enchiladas (with minimal effort!)

Enchiladas are my favorite Mexican specialty! (Photo credit)

I am perpetually in pursuit of good enchiladas. By good I mean flavorful, unmushy texture, enough but not too much cheese (yes, I’m like Goldilocks that way), tasty sauce, non-dry chicken, etc. If the enchiladas in question are of a vegetable persuasion, I prefer that the default not be mushy zucchini. I *might* be difficult to please.

It’s even tougher in my own kitchen! I’ve only made enchiladas a few times out of irritation with myself. Although I spend hours preparing chicken breasts, inevitably my chicken is tough, not tender. Or, my sauce is not flavorful. Well, I’ve discovered some secrets, in this recipe I adapted from All Recipes. (See original here).

Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken
12 fajita sized white corn tortillas
1 20-oz can green enchilada sauce (I prefer Las Palmas brand)
1 small can diced green chilies (I use the HOT variety, but any one will work)
1/2 medium onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic smashed/diced
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup shredded jalapeno pepperjack, plus some extra for topping
pepper/dried red pepper flakes

1. Wash hands thoroughly. De-meat* the chicken. You can slice/dice the breast, but I like a shredded approach myself.
2. Over medium-high heat, saute the onions for a minute, then add garlic, stirring frequently. Cook until the onions are translucent and the smell of happiness fills your kitchen.
3. Add chicken, chilies and half of the sauce. Stir well and cook for a few minutes until hot. I added pepper and red pepper flakes, too.
4. Fold in the cheese and remove from heat.
5. Spray a 13×9 dish with cooking spray
6. Warm up your tortillas in the microwave–less than a minute
7. Fill each tortilla with a couple spoon-fulls of the mix, roll and place seam-side down in the pan. (You’ll want them to be all snug in a row so they don’t fall apart.)
8. Top with the remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.
9. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 20ish minutes. Remove foil and broil for a few minutes until the edges brown.
10. Top with sour cream, tomatoes, guac and enjoy!

xoxo,
shawna

* For the life of me, I couldn’t think of a concise way to say “remove all of the meat from the carcass” without sounding gross. And then I wrote “de-meat” and it made me laugh. Although I looked at other recipes which indicate you should “de-bone” the chicken, I like de-meat better. 😉

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