Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde

After being mildly disappointed in the tomato-based enchilada sauce I made back in February, I decided to go a different route this time around. It would either be a chili pepper-based sauce, or a tomatillo salsa. We had everything already at home to make the tomatillo salsa required for the enchiladas, so I gave it a go.

I will preface this recipe by saying this might have been my tastiest effort in my Mexican food adventure to date. The sauce smells heavenly as it cooks.

Ingredients:

Raw (or roasted) tomatillo salsa, recipe follows
tortillas (I made flour tortillas)
2 chicken breasts (cooked for a few hours in the salsa)
2 cups chicken stock
salt, pepper, cumin powder (for seasoning chicken)

The recipe in RB's cookbook for the raw tomatillo salsa differs slightly (I think) from his website. But here it is, it's super easy...

http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=193.

I added the juice of half a lime to this as a matter of personal preference.

Enchiladas:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Season the chicken on both sides with salt, fresh pepper, and some ground cumin. Heat about 1 T. olive oil in a large, deep pan over medium-high heat. Sear both sides of the chicken to brown, reduce heat to low and add the tomatillo salsa and 2 cups chicken stock. Let simmer 2 hours (or at least until chicken is fully cooked).I turned the chicken occassionally over the course of the 2 hours to try to cook it as evenly as possible.

While the chicken was cooking I prepared a black bean side dish and some fresh flour tortillas.

Black beans:

1 15 oz can black beans, drained
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
A little bit o' this, a little bit 'o that (salsa verde and tomato salsa)
Olive oil

There was no method to this madness. Heat some olive oil, just a little, in a small pot over medium or lower heat. Add the garlic, cooking until soft. Add the beans and stir, increasing the heat a bit. Add the stock and let cook for a while. I really wanted to cook the chicken in the salsa verde for a long time, so the beans also cooked for a long time. The longer they cook, I'm sure the tastier they are...I kept adding a little bit of water when the black bean sauce reduced. Sometimes I added a little of the salsa verde from the pan, and sometimes I added some fresh tomato salsa to keep the beans from drying out. Near the end I smashed up the beans a bit with a potato masher. It turned out to be a very tasty side dish, and one that complimented the enchiladas nicely. In the future I might use this as a filling for tacos.

When the beans and enchi's are just about done, add the cilantro to the beans.

Flour tortillas:

There is a video on about.com I used for this recipe. I made the tortillas a bit larger to make enchiladas. This recipe makes about 6 large tortillas, or 8-12 small ones.

http://video.about.com/mexicanfood/Homemade-Flour-Tortillas.htm

Back to the enchiladas:

When you feel your chicken and salsa verde have cooked for long enough, and you're finished with everything else, remove the chicken from the pan and cover so you don't let too much of that precious steam escape. When it cools a bit, shred with two forks...the longer you let the chicken simmer in the salsa, the easier this will be.

In a 13x9 or similar baking dish, spread some of the salsa verde over the bottom. Roll some chicken into each of the tortillas, and place them in the baking dish (leave some room between each enchi so you can get them out individually if you want). Using a large spoon, spoon more salsa verde over the top of each enchilada, then top each with the cheese of your choice. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, basting with the salsa verde to keep moist.

Serve alongside the black beans.

Flavor: 5/5

You can't go wrong here. I think the longer you cook the salsa/chicken, the better this dish will be.

Heat: 1/5

I think the heat was caused by the pepper jack cheese I used to top the enchiladas. Other than that, nothing about this dish was spicy.

Kid Friendliness: 3/5

My daughter ate a taco I prepared for her with one of the tortillas, some of the chicken, and a tiny bit of the salsa verde. Whether she would have eaten it in enchilada form remains to be seen. The kids were in bed by the time we ate the enchi's at 8:30...so maybe we'll see next time.

Health: 4/5

I'm no nutritionist, but if you look at the ingredients, this is no belly buster. Limit your portion and you've got one healthy, and mightily tasty meal. Try whole wheat flour or corn tortillas instead of white flour tortillas if you prefer.