Enchiladas

My first Daring Cooks challenge!


Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

I was really excited and nervous about my first Daring Cooks challenge. The recipe was pretty different from what I'm used to cooking, and the steps were certainly very involved. But that made it all the more rewarding. The result was exactly why I joined the Daring Kitchen, and why I started this blog - I was inspired to cook something out of my comfort zone, both in taste and technique. I tried new ingredients I'd never used before, and new methods that I'll certainly be able to carry over into other recipes.

I served the enchiladas on Cinco de Mayo, although that was more of a coincidence than anything else. We served them with rice and beans, and we had three other people over to try them out - my friend Amber, her boyfriend Ron and my sister Beth. Everyone agreed that the dish was amazing, particularly the salsa verde. I really couldn't get over how flavorful that was. The enchilada stacks stayed constructed nicely, and didn't slide around or fall apart when trying to eat them. Overall the experiment was a success! And I can't wait for my next challenge.

Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas

Prep Time

• Roasting and preparing the chiles and tomatillos - 30 min. to 1 hr.
• Preparing and simmering enchilada sauce - 30 min.
• Grilling chicken - 10 to 15 min.
• Assembling and baking enchilada stacks - 30 min.

Equipment

• Grill or broiler to roast the Anaheim chiles
• Saucepan to cook the tomatillos
• Bowl and plastic wrap to cover and steam the roasted chiles
• Food processor to puree the tomatillos
• Small frying pan to fry the tortillas
• Baking dish (large, at least 10x15) - I used a 15" paella pan, because it was literally the only thing I had that would fit all 4 stacks side-by-side
• Cheese grater
• Tongs for turning chiles over while roasting

Ingredients

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (~ eight 6 to 8 inch chiles, 24 ounces, or 678 grams)
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (~ 4-5 medium, 212 grams)4 cups Chicken broth (32 ounces, 920 grams)1 clove Garlic, minced2 tsp. Yellow onion, minced1 tsp. Dried oregano
½ tsp. Kosher salt
¼ tsp. Black Pepper
2 tbsp. Cornstarch
To taste, Hot sauce, optional - I didn't think it needed it, so I chose to leave it out
2 Boneless chicken breasts
3 tbsp. Olive oil
To taste, Kosher salt and pepper12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch, 13-15 cm.)
6 oz. grated Monterey Jack, (170 grams)
For garnish, Cilantro, chopped and sprinkled optional - my feelings toward cilantro are best reserved for another post. Suffice it to say that I skipped this step.

Directions

Lay out the Anaheim chiles on a baking sheet, in one layer.

Sorry for the Kitchenaid photobomb. I have precious little counterspace... 

This isn't another step, I just think it looks pretty :

Drizzle olive oil over the chiles, coating them pretty well.

Hell of a time to misplace my basting brush, but whatever, spoon worked.

Place the baking sheet right under the broiler,

and turn them over when they're good on one side.

Let them broil until they're good and charred,

place them in a bowl and cover with plastic to let them steam as they cool. Once they're cooled, open the chile and remove the seeds, then scrape away the skin. The directions are very clear at this point that you should not rinse the chiles, or you'll lose all the flavor. 

Thanks, John!

Now for the green chile sauce! Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. While it's getting to a boil, remove the papery skins of the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until they're soft. You'll know when they're done, because they turn a much darker shade of green.

Drain them, then puree in a food processor. 

Return the tomatillo puree to the saucepan, adding the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, (AND THIS WAS THE COOLEST PART!!) mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water.

I'm not kidding, I think I was 5 the last time I was this in awe of something. Apparently I've never cooked with cornstarch before, because it is a magical substance that is both liquid and solid, and goes back and forth between the two.

I seriously couldn't get over it. There is no way that something with the properties of cornstarch can possibly be good for your body. But it sure was fun to play with. 

Sorry, you wanted the recipe. Moving on. 

Add the cornstarch/water (MAGIC) mixture to the saucepan and stir it in well. Simmer until the sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes. Taste to see if it needs more seasonings or hot sauce. For me it needed nothing, it was really perfect already. 

I did all of this the day before serving. The sauce was time-consuming enough itself, and it refrigerated well, so I was able to get that out of the way ahead of time. 

Fast forward to the next day. Heat the gas grill to medium-high, and coat the chicken in olive oil, salt and pepper, and pre-heat the oven to 450°. I made John do the grill part, he's good at that. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Cool the chicken and slice into strips or shred. 

While he was doing all that, I fried the tortillas. For that, heat 3 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat.

Ok, maybe you can't see it, but there is oil in there.

To check to see if it's hot enough, dip the side of a tortilla into the oil. If it sizzles, you're ready to fry.

Using tongs, put a tortilla in the pan and cook until it starts to get just a little bit brown. Flip over, and do the other side. This takes 20 seconds per side, at most. Drain on a paper towel. Repeat for all 12 tortillas.

It was really funny how, when I flipped over to the second side of each tortilla, it puffed up like a huge balloon.

In a large baking dish (or apparently a paella pan, if you're me), ladle just enough of the green sauce to coat the bottom. 

Lay down the first layer of tortillas, 4 of them side by side and not overlapping.

Ladle a 1/2 cup of sauce over the tortillas, then spread half of the chicken on top of that.

Top with another 1/2 cup of sauce, and 1/3 of the grated cheese. Stack another layer of tortilla.

Top with the rest of the chicken and more sauce,

then another 1/3 of the cheese. Last tortilla, last of the sauce, then the last of the cheese for the final topping, and bake.

Remove from the oven when the cheese is well melted, about 20 minutes. 

I was amazed at how perfectly golden and crispy they turned out. 

They were a good deal bigger than I expected them to be, so we cut them in half and served them like that. Everyone went back for seconds.

I can think of a number of ways to make this dish somewhat healthy, too - skipping the cornstarch, baking the tortillas, and using low-fat cheese would make it more diet-friendly, without losing too much of the flavor. I'm definitely sticking to this recipe, however, I don't care how many calories. It turned out really well, and I don't plan on messing with it one bit.