Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

I've been DREAMING about enchiladas lately. I think I was going through Mexican food withdrawals because I haven't been to my favorite restaurant lately. But rather than going out to eat I decided to make an attempt at chicken enchiladas! I've never made them before but I looked at a million recipes online and put together my own little concoction. I personally prefer the green tomatillo sauce to the red sauce so I cleaned out my grocery store of tomatillos and made that from scratch too! I am not claiming that this recipe is authentic Mexican or anything, but I at least made everything from scratch and damn it, it tastes good!

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

Makes 10-12 Enchiladas, 5-6 Servings

Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

10-12 corn tortillas

8 tomatillos

3 cloves garlic

2 jalapeños

1 white onion

1 lime

2 1/2 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded

1 cup water

3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Husk, rinse, and cut stem end off tomatillos. In a large saucepan bring water, tomatillos, jalapeños, and half of the onion to a boil. Covered and boil over medium high heat for 10 minutes. The tomatillos will turn a more olive green color, as opposed to lime green.

2. Place cilantro, juice of half the lime, cumin, garlic cloves, the cooked tomatillos, jalapeños, and half of the onion in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Dice and sauté the other half of the onion until it becomes translucent. Mix sautéed onions with shredded chicken, 1/3 cup Monterey jack cheese, and 1/4 cup sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 4. Heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Using tongs fry the corn tortillas one at a time in the hot oil for 10 seconds on each side. Place fried tortillas on a plate lined with paper towels.

5. Spread a few spoonfuls of tomatillo sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Fill tortillas with chicken mixture and roll up. Place rolled tortilla seam side down in the baking dish and repeat until chicken mixture is gone.

6. Pour remaining tomatillo sauce on top of rolled tortillas in baking dish. Spoon remaining sour cream on top of tomatillo sauce. Sprinkle remaining Monterey jack cheese on top.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes and broil for an additional 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese (watch carefully!). Enjoy!

Husk, rinse, and cut the stem ends off the tomatillos. I cleaned my grocery store out of them! Boil 1 cup water with tomatillos, jalapeños, and 1/2 the onion covered for 10 minutes (ignore the poblano pepper - I didn't end up using it).

 The tomatillos will turn a kind of olive green when they're done!

Place tomatillos, jalapeños, half the onion, cilantro, juice of half the lime, cumin, and garlic cloves in the food processor. Blend until it is very smooth!

The sauce should not be chunky. Add salt and pepper to your liking. This would be great as a green salsa on its own!

Dice and saute the other half of the onion until the pieces are translucent.

Mix sauteed onions with shredded chicken, 1/3 cup Monterey jack cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Using a rotisserie chicken for this recipe would be perfect! Just make sure you get a plain rotisserie chicken, not bbq or lemon pepper or whatever.

Fry the tortillas in vegetable oil over medium high heat for 10 seconds on each side. Make sure the oil it HOT or else the tortillas will just get soggy. And ONLY 10 seconds on each side! Place the fried tortillas on a plate lined with paper towels.

Spread a few spoonfuls of the tomatillo sauce in the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking pan.

Fill each tortilla with a few spoonfuls of the chicken mixture.

 Roll each tortilla and place them seam side down in the baking dish.

Here's where it gets fun... Top with the remaining tomatillo sauce!

Spoon the remaining sour cream on top of the tomatillo sauce. The sour cream and cheese balance out the spiciness of the tomatillo sauce well. I wanted to use Mexican crema but my grocery store didn't have any :(

Top with the remaining Monterey jack cheese!

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes to melt the cheese and broil for another 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese. Look at all the cheesy goodness!

Each serving should get two enchiladas (the corn tortillas are small) and I served it with black beans and rice. This DEFINITELY fulfilled my Mexican food cravings!