Mom's Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

Author: Barbara Silva

Ingredients

• Corn Tortillas; you will need 12-16 depending on how big a batch you are making.
• 2 cups shredded cheese of your choice. Blends work well or you can use cheddar or Monterey jack.
• You can use chicken or ground beef – again, your choice. You will need roughly a pound of meat either way.
• Cook the chicken first, roast or boil; shred the meat and set aside. Brown the ground beef and drain if necessary.
• I chop one onion and a couple of stalks of celery. Sauté in some olive oil until softening and it has a little color.
• Blend in the chicken or beef. Set aside while you make the sauce.

For the 1-lb. meat size batch

• 2 cans of cream of “whatever” soup. I have used chicken, celery, mushroom, etc.
• 1 large can of evaporated milk (you can substitute regular milk also. You will need 1-1/2 soup cans).
• Blend the milk and soups together in a sauce pot until it starts to warm. Add 1 or 2 cans of chopped green chili.
• The amount depends on how hot and spicy you want the sauce. For the smaller batch I normally just use one can.

Now you have to decide if you want to make flat enchilada casserole or if you want to stuff and roll each tortilla. It always depends on how fast I want or need to put this together or how lazy I am feeling.

Directions

Rolled and stuffed enchiladas option

You will need a 13x9 baking dish or cookie sheet with sides (like my jelly roll pan). Spray the bottom of the pan with non-stick cooking spray. Put some of the sauce to cover the bottom.

Take a tortilla and put a good heaping tablespoon of meat mixture in the middle. Add some shredded cheese and fold over one side of the tortilla to tuck in the filling and roll up the enchilada.

Set it in the baking dish or on the jelly roll pan and keeping stuffing, tucking and rolling until all of the meat mixture is used. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and cover will foil.

Bake at 350* for around 25 minutes. Uncover and put on some additional cheese (how much depends on how much you like cheese) and put back in the oven, uncovered, until the cheese is melted and starts to brown (usually 10-15 minutes). It really helps if you let them rest at least 30 minutes after they come out of the oven. It is much easier to serve them and they don’t fall apart so easily. It also give you time to make rice, beans or salad.

Layered enchilada casserole option

You need the 13x9 baking dish, sprayed with non-stick spray and the bottom coated again with sauce. I cut the tortillas in half to make it easier to fit them. Layer the bottom with tortillas. Spoon half of the meat mixture over them; sprinkle with cheese and put some additional sauce on top of the cheese. Put in another layer of tortillas, the other half of the meat, more cheese and sauce. Finish with the final layer of tortillas and sauce. Don’t put the final layer of cheese on yet. Cover with foil and bake at 350* for around 30 minutes. Uncover, add the final layer of cheese and put back in for 15 minutes or so until it is melted and starts to brown. Again, it is better to let this stand once it comes out for 30 minutes or so. You can lightly cover with foil to keep the heat in but it needs to set like lasagna would so it doesn’t run all over when you cut it.

I just cut it up like lasagna to serve or you can use a big spoon to scoop the portions. You can increase the amounts of meat, tortillas and sauce depending on how many people you are feeding or if you are preparing them to freeze portions for later. They freeze and reheat well and you can get those 8x8 aluminum pans to make family size portions. Just be sure to double wrap with foil before putting them in the freezer and let them cool completely before freezing. That way they won’t be soggy when you reheat them.

Experiment and adjust as you need to for your family.

Source: Barbara Silva