The Rolling Dinner - Part 2 - Chicken Enchiladas

This is a recipe that I adapted from a blog that I love and frequent (Simply Recipes). I have a sensitivity to iodine. So about the time that I found this recipe, I was eliminating processed foods (as much as possible) from my diet. I had to find a substitute that I liked for enchilada sauce in a bottle. This recipe is amazing. I have adapted the spice mix in the sauce and cut back on the onion a bit, but that is about it.

If you are wondering what makes this part two of "the rolling dinner" series, it is the second use for the fall apart chicken meat that you made for "Italian Chicken Noodle Soup". The soup chicken is full of flavor after being cooked in the tomatoes and celery of the soup stock. However if you did not join us for soup, you can use any cooked chicken meat.

Total cook time: 1 hour
Active cook time: 45 mins

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:
2 Cups shredded or cubed chicken
Olive oil or Canola oil
2 cloves garlic - diced
1/2 white or sweet onion - diced
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes - no salt added or fire roasted - pureed
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1/2 Tablespoon paprika
1/2 Tablespoon ground black pepper
8 Wheat tortillas
Canola oil
2-3 Cups grated cheese

Tools:
2 medium saute pans - about tortilla size in diameter
Spatula
Blender
Tongs
Dinner plate
9x13 inch baking pan
Rubber spatula


Method:
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare your sauce. Heat 2 Tablespoons cooking oil over medium heat in one of the saute pans. Add diced onion and cook until softened, 2 - 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

Add the pureed can of diced tomatoes to the onions and garlic and heat. Alternately you can use a can of tomato sauce instead. As a pantry shortcut, I do not keep tomato sauce. I keep only diced or whole tomatoes canned. You conserve space and break down the contents depending on what you need.
Add chili powder, paprika, and ground black pepper. Make sure the spices are well combined in the sauce.
Add 1/2 cup grated cheese and 2/3 cup enchilada sauce to the chicken meat and mix.

In the second saute pan add canola oil to be 1/4 inch deep. Heat over medium heat. If it starts to spit turn it down. My stove top gets really hot. I keep my burner at medium low.

Prepare the tortillas one at a time. Dip into the oil for only a few seconds until the tortilla is heated. The tortilla will begin to fill with air. Remove from the oil with tongs and transfer to the enchilada sauce.

Push the edges of the tortilla down into the sauce and then flip, coating each side of the tortilla with enchilada sauce. Note: As the sauce continues to stay warm on a low burner, it will need to have small amounts of water added if it becomes too thick.
Remove tortilla from sauce and onto dinner plate.

Repeat these steps until all eight tortillas are warmed, coated in sauce and standing by on the dinner plate.
Assemble the enchiladas. Place a sauce coated tortilla in the 9x13 inch pan. Put one eighth of the chicken mix in the center of the tortilla creating a line down the center. Fold over the tortilla and roll into a cigar shape, ends open.

Repeat with the rest of the tortillas using up the chicken mix.
Please excuse my finger in the shot. I was holding the camera precariously, fingers covered in sauce. Haha. I'm sure you get the point though.
Scrape any left over sauce out of the pan, off of the plate, and out of the chicken mix bowl. Make sure it gets on the enchiladas as it is scrumptious and not to be wasted.
Top the chicken enchiladas with remaining grated cheese.
Place in the heated 350 degree oven and wait for cheese to melt and bubble.

While the enchiladas are cooking make Spanish Rice. Also a recipe that I've adapted from Simply Recipes. I will include my adaptation for Spanish Rice in part 3 of "the rolling dinner" because that is what we will use to make the oh so easy Tortilla Soup recipe.

Thanks to Simply Recipes for a blog that is awesome. I just keep coming back for more.