In an attempt to save some moolah and also eat more diabetic friendly, I’ve been trying to cook dinner at least once a week for my family. I know that many of the Super Moms out there are laughing at my goal because you cook a meal for your family every night and maybe eat out one meal a week… Well, that’s why you are a Super Mom. Congrats!
My husband had raved several times about these chicken enchiladas that one of his co-workers had brought to work. I really wanted to make something that he would enjoy (and also secretly wanted to impress him with my mad culinary skills) so about a month ago I called Jenny up to get the recipe. Jenny is one of those Super Moms mentioned earlier in this post who politely giggled at some of my rookie questions like how do you boil chicken. (FYI, boiling chicken is as easy as dropping chicken into a pot of boiling water. DUH! Why didn’t I already know that?!) She also encouraged me not be so nervous because in addition to being a Super Mom, she moonlights as a kind, thoughtful friend.
So… I attempted making the dish. As with many of my cooking attempts, Juan ate the food politely commenting that there was ”a little too much cheese” and that “Jenny shreds her chicken.” Then the next day he “accidentally” forgot to take the left overs that I’d packed for his lunch, which ended up the basura. I’ll admit it, these were not the best enchiladas ever, but they were not THAT bad. I felt pretty down that the meal didn’t meet up to my expectations, especially since I was trying to do something special for him.
Fast forward to Wednesday…
Juan was working late and picking up Julie from the MIL, so I’d decided that I was going to try to redeem myself by attempting the elusive enchilada recipe once again. I stopped working at 10 mins til 5pm to start prep work on the meal (and to watch the last 10 mins of Oprah’s last show ever for the rest of time or at least until she starts a new show on the Oprah Network.) This time I doubled the amount of chicken and shredded it to ensure that I’d addressed any cheesy complaints from my previous attempt.
Bottom line… The enchiladas were AWESOME! Juan who had earlier admitted to eating a hamburger in anticipation of another Robyn cooking disaster actually liked it and we both enjoyed them again for lunch on Thursday. Sweet Redemption! I’m one meal closer to Super Mom-dom.
Here is the recipe including my tips to avoiding my mistakes the first go ’round.
Jenny’s Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
- 8 in flour tortillas
- 2-4 T Butter
- 2 bricks of Philly cream cheese
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1 can of chopped green chilis (found in the Mexican food aisle, near the canned jalapeno)
- bag of frozen chicken tenders
- 1 container of chicken stock
- 1 quart of heavy creme
- 4 c of shredded Monterrey jack cheese
Grease your baking dish and turn the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large pot with half chicken stock and half water and boil the chicken.
While the chicken is boiling, get started on the cheesy mixture. You’ll need to cut the onion into small square pieces, then melt the butter to a large skillet and saute the onions. Once the onions start to turn translucent add the can of green chilis and stir until the mixture is warm. Next add the cubed up cream cheese and 1c of the Monterrey Jack cheese. Stir constantly to make a yummy creamy mixture, it’ll be the texture of melted queso dip when all mixed up. Trick from Super Mom Jenny: You may need to add a little bit of the chicken stock from your boiling chicken or the heavy cream to keep the cheese mixture creamy. The melty cheese should be thick but fluid.
Once the cheese is smooth and gooey, turn the heat on the stove to low under your cheese and check to see that your chicken is cooked done. The chicken should be white all the way through and should tear pretty easily.
Next take the chicken from the boiling water (be sure not to burn yourself) and shred it using 2 forks, toss any grisly nasty parts. Add the shredded chicken into the cheesy mixture and stir throughly. I did this in batches, but I don’t think it really matters. The consistency of the mixed chicken & cheese should be a solid, but messy.
Next take a large spoon and drop a healthy spoonful or two of the chicken into each tortilla so that it’s filled from end to end. Roll the tortilla around the chicken and place the enchilada seam down in your greased pan. You’ll repeat this step until all your enchiladas are filled and your filling is gone. I ended up with ~12 enchiladas. You can limit the amount of chicken in each tortilla if you need to spread it out into more servings.
Now it’s time to add the rest of the Monterrey Jack cheese and create the sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 3 cups of shredded cheese on top of the enchiladas, so that the tortillas are completely covered. Drizzle the heavy cream over the top of the shredded cheese covered enchiladas. Once everything is cooked the heavy cream will mix with the melted cheese and soak into the tortillas to make a nice sauce and keep everything moist.
Finally place the pan in the oven to cook. Since everything is technically already cooked, you just want for the cheese on top to melt and for all the ingredients to heat back up. This takes about 20-25 mins.
For an extra special treat, once everything is cooked and looking good turn on the broiler on your oven for 2-5 mins and let the cheese on top brown up. Once you’ve turned on the broiler, DON’T WALK AWAY! You can burn the top quickly if you don’t keep an eye on things while the broiler is on. Once the top looks like something from the Food Network, take the dish out to cool a couple of minutes, then serve and ENJOY!
This one is great for dinner, even greater as left overs the next day!
