AhMazingly Delish Chicken Enchiladas

I make these Chicken Enchiladas at least once or twice a month, and if i have ever had you over for dinner more than a few times you have probably tried them :)

I never knew just how delicious enchiladas could really be until i made these. I really feel like the key is in making your own sauce from scratch. And we like our spicy and extra saucy!

It is a recipe that requires a little bit of time, but once you get make it a few times, its a piece of cake. 

So worth the little bit of extra effort !

I originally got the recipe off the My Colombian Recipes website. 

If you have checked out some of my other Favorite Recipe posts, you know i get a lot of recipes off her site.There are some seriously delicious things on there to try let me tell ya! 

We like having extra sauce left over to put on our enchildas once they are done so i doubled the sauce recipe  and make ours a bit more spicy. 

Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil 
6-10 dried árbol chili to your taste
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
6 cups chopped tomatoes (I tend to use canned petite diced tomatoes. Easy and less expensive)
4 cups chicken stock (You will use the broth from your boiled chicken breasts- see below-)

4 cups Monterrey jack cheese
Salt and pepper
1 pack of corn tortillas (These are the yellow ones not the white flour ones. The taste and texture DO make a difference. The amount you use will depend on how much chicken you make and how much of the chicken, cheese and sauce you use to place in them, i don't like a skinny enchilada so i fill mine up, yum)
4 -6 cups cooked and shredded chicken (I use approx 4 bone in chicken breasts, boil them with a chopped onion and drop a few whole garlic cloves in too)
sour cream
Fresh cilantro, chopped
Salsa for garnish
Vegetable oil for warming the corn tortillas

First thing you want to do is boil your bone in chicken breasts. You will need the broth to make the sauce.
As i mentioned above, i add a whole chopped onion to the water along with a few whole garlic cloves for extra flavor. You will need to boil your chicken for approx 45 min.s or until done.

Once you have your chicken cooked, drain the breasts through a colander into a large pot to save your broth for the sauce. 

Set chicken breasts aside to cool and shred later, while your sauce is simmering.

To make the sauce- In a large pan over medium low heat , warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and chili and sauté until just golden, 5 to 7 minutes. (I do medium low because anything higher on my stove will burn the garlic and you don't want to do that. So keep and eye on the garlic and have your other ingredients ready to put in. I also chop my dried arbol chilis and get rid of the stems)

Stir in the cumin and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds more.
Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and the chicken broth. Stir and cook over medium-low heat for about 15-30 minutes.

While the sauce simmers, go ahead and shred your chicken and set aside.

In a food processor or blender, process the sauce mixture to a smooth puree, in batches if necessary.

BE CAREFUL. If you don't wait for it to cool, which i never do- the sauce will be VERY HOT and will expand while pureeing or blending, so DONT OVERFILL. I use a kitchen towel to put over my food processor or blender while pureeing to avoid messes (and burns lol)

Return the puree to the pan and set over medium heat for 5-10 minutes more & set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Heat vegetable oil in a large fry pan over medium heat. Heat the tortillas in the hot pan until softened, about 20 seconds per side. I am used to doing this by now so i do a few at a time. When you first start out, just do 1 or 2 at a time so you dont fry them to a crisp.

Lightly oil a baking dish large enough to hold your enchiladas side by side. I make a lot so i end up using a large baking dish AND smaller 9 by 9. (Jason likes to take the smaller dish to work and share with his co-workers (= )

Place shredded chicken down the center of a tortilla, sprinkle the chicken filling with cheese and drizzle with sauce. Roll up the tortilla and place it in the dish, seam side down. Repeat until you have formed all of your enchiladas.

Drizzle the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and top with the remaining cheese. We like ours saucy and cheesy so i pretty much DROWN the enchiladas in sauce, and just add as much cheese as we like on top.

Bake the enchiladas on 350 degrees until the filling is bubbling and the cheese is melted and golden, about 20 minutes. 

To serve- carefully transfer enchiladas to each plate, garnish with the sour cream, salsa and fresh cilantro and serve immediately.

I like to pair with a side of saffron rice and some shredded lettuce as well. 

So, so, so good. 

Let me know what you think!

-Alex