Pioneer Woman's Enchiladas

When I saw this recipe in PW's cookbook I knew it had to go on my meal plan for the week, and I knew i needed to slate it for a weekend night because it was going to be time consuming. I originally planned it for Saturday night and then remembered that the husband and i were having a date night, so it got bumped to Sunday. I love good Mexican food, and I was excited to try a new enchilada recipe. this laptop is a pain to type on, so i have to keep it short and sweet. my lack of capitalization is starting to bother me.

Pioneer Woman's Enchiladas
source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

FOR THE SAUCE:
1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
1 can (28 Ounce) Enchilada Or Red Sauce
2 cups Chicken Broth
½ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Chopped Cilantro

FOR THE MEAT:
1-½ pound Ground Beef
1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
2 cans (4 Ounce) Diced Green Chilies
½ teaspoons Salt

FOR THE TORTILLAS:
10 whole (to 14) Corn Tortillas
½ cups Canola Oil

TO ASSEMBLE:
3 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
½ cups Chopped Black Olives
1 cup Chopped Green Onions
½ cups Chopped Cilantro

Step #1 – The Sauce
In a large saucepan over medium heat, add oil and flour and whisk together to make a paste, cooking for one minute. Pour in the red sauce, chicken broth, cilantro, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes.

Step #2 – The Meat
Brown the meat with onions in a skillet. Drain off fat. Stir in 2 cans diced green chilies and seasoned salt. Set aside.

Step #3 – Tortillas
Heat canola oil in a small skillet over medium heat. One by one, using tongs, fry tortillas in oil until soft, not crisp – about 30 seconds per side. Remove to a paper—towel lined plate. Repeat until all tortillas have been fried.

Step #4 – Assembly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour ½ cup red sauce in bottom of baking pan. Spread to even out. Dip each tortilla into red sauce, then remove to work surface. Spoon meat, a little grated cheese, a little black olives, and green onions in the center of tortilla. Roll up and place, seam down, in baking pan. Repeat until pan is filled. Pour extra red sauce over enchiladas. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle cilantro over enchiladas before serving.

*****

To make this even more time consuming I decided to make my own corn tortillas. I finally figured out how to keep the tortillas from sticking to my tortilla press--spray the wax paper with non-stick spray! Normally I just use wax paper and the dough ends up sticking in one spot and gives me misshapen tortillas. I usually get very frustrated with the process. This time I nearly drove to the store to just buy corn tortillas when I got frustrated, but then my brilliant idea came to me. Since i made my own tortillas, i skipped the step of frying the tortillas to soften them up since i knew mine were soft from having just made them. Everything else I did like PW.

My family watched "Despicable Me" while I made this dinner. I figured I could watch part of it with them, but it took me pretty much the length of the movie to assemble this. It's definitely a labor intensive recipe, BUT it was worth it. These were some tasty enchiladas. The actual rolling and assembly was pretty messy, but they were fantastic and totally worth it. This isn't something I'd make on a regular basis just because of the time factor, but they were definitely tasty and worth the time investment. My oldest (whom I think I will start refering to as Boy #1 and the baby as Boy #2 since he really isn't a baby anymore) thought they were too spicy, but I didn't think they were at all. i even made sure i used mild enchilada sauce so he wouldn't complain. But aside from that, the rest of us really liked these. Way to go, PW...another winner!

Tofu Enchiladas

I've posted this recipe before, but it was a really long time ago. It's one of the husband's favorites, and I had most of the ingredients for it recently. I'd forgotten how much I like it, although I think it's a lot better when it's fresh as opposed to the leftovers. The husband had no problem eating the leftovers, but I just didn't care for them as much. This is a great recipe for disguising tofu because you really have no idea it's even in there. My college roommate, Joanne, made this for me one time while she lived here in Phoenix, and I immediately fell in love with it. This was also one of the first--if not the actual first--meal I made for the husband when we were first dating.

Tofu Enchiladas

1 package firm tofu
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp paprika
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3-4 green onions
1 cup sliced olives
1 can drained black beans
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Mexican seasoning
12 corn tortillas
2 cans mild enchilada sauce
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Mix together first 10 ingredients. Divide filling between tortillas, following diections for rolling on can. Top with 1 cup grated cheese and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

*****

The only thing I did differently was to use whole wheat flour tortillas instead of corn because I had them on hand and didn't feel like making my own corn tortillas. I had some filling left over--not enough to fill another tortilla but too much to just throw away--so I spread it on the top of the enchiladas before pouring the sauce on there.

We all really liked this. The boy doesn't like mushrooms, but he picked them out. The baby ate just as much of this as I did! He's an eater for sure, but it always amazes me when he eats an adult size portion! I'll have to get this in the dinner rotation more often since we all enjoy it.

Enchilada filling:


Mmmmm...saucy, cheesey enchiladas:

Mexican Chicken Casserole

So, part of my blog hiatus--other than being sick all last week--was due to a weekend trip the husband and I took to New Orleans for his cousin's wedding. We had a fantastic time eating and drinking...mostly drinking. ;) I had one of the best foods I have ever eaten in my life...Chargrilled Oysters at Acme Oyster House. Lordy mama, were they ever tasty. Grilled oysters on the half shell with a seasoned butter and romano cheese. Wow. I could have eaten just those the entire time we were there.

Anyway, now it's back to the daily grind since the vacation is over and my cold is gone. I'm still trying to stick to the Pantry Challenge, and so far so good. I had a different casserole planned for Tuesday night, but after putting all the ingredients into the Points calculator on the WW website, I realized it was going to be too many. So I checked out the Cooking Light website for some other chicken casserole ideas. I was excited to find this one as it also gave me a chance to make my own corn tortillas with the tortilla press I got for Christmas!

Mexican Chicken Casserole

1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 (4.5-ounce) cans chopped green chiles, divided
1 3/4 pounds skinned, boned chicken breasts
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup evaporated skim milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup (2 ounces) tub-style light cream cheese
1 (10-ounce) can enchilada sauce
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
Cooking spray
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1 ounce tortilla chips, crushed (about 6 chips)

Combine broth and 1 can of chiles in a large skillet; bring to a boil. Add chicken; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until chicken is done, turning chicken once. Remove chicken from cooking liquid, reserving cooking liquid; cool chicken. Shred meat with two forks, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 can of chiles and onion; sauté 3 minutes or until soft. Add reserved cooking liquid, milk, Monterey Jack, cream cheese, and enchilada sauce; stir well. Stir in shredded chicken; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place 4 tortillas in the bottom of a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Spoon 2 cups chicken mixture over tortillas. Repeat layers twice, ending with chicken mixture. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and chips. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Information
Calories:369 (28% from fat)
Fat:11.4g (sat 5g,mono 3.8g,poly 1.4g)
Protein:35.6g
Carbohydrate:31.3g
Fiber:3g
Cholesterol:79mg
Iron:2.4mg
Sodium:479mg
Calcium:360mg

*****

I think all I changed was using less chicken. Then in turn I added in less of the liquids because I didn't want it to be too saucy. The finished product was FANTASTIC! I could have used more of the sauce. It wasn't dry, but it could have been more saucy. Especially when we've had the leftovers, it could have used a little more sauce. My tortillas came out pretty good for my first attempt at making my own. I don't normally like corn tortillas, but these were good.

This is definitely something I'd make again! The husband and I loved it. I had the boy taste the sauce and he thought it was too spicy, so he got to have a quesadilla instead. It wasn't nearly as spicy once it was all melded together in the casserole, so I think he would have been fine eating it.

Three Cheese Enchiladas

The husband is a HUGE Detroit Red Wings fan, and tonight is game five in the series against Chicago. He requested last night that tonight's dinner be something in the crock pot so he didn't have to entertain the boy while I'm cooking. That was after I had gone to the grocery store, and I couldn't think of anything to do in the crockpot that wasn't chicken related, and I'm kind of tired of chicken. I wanted something vegetarian, and I realized I had posted this recipe but never made it. I thought it would be easy enough because the boy could help me mix up everything. He loves to help in the kitchen, especially for dinner. It's pretty rare he gets to help with dinner since it usually involves raw meat, sharp knives, and using the stove. He's engrossed with Bob the Builder right now, so once he's done with that I'll see if he wants to help. Here's the original post with the recipe:

Three Cheese Enchiladas

*****

These were pretty good. I don't know if I'd go out of my way to make them again, but I usually have all of these ingredients on hand, so it's nice to have another "oh no it's 4:00 and I don't know what to make for dinner" meal in my pocket. I used way more cheese than was called for--three ounces of Monterey Jack, four ounces of goat cheese, and two ounces of cream cheese--and I really don't think it would have been filling enough with increasing those amounts. I think everything else I kept the same, except I used whole wheat tortillas instead of corn. I made a Rick Bayless rice recipe as a side dish, but it did not turn out. I think it was my fault, not the recipe's. I'll post it later because I want to hang out with the husband and baby.

Three Cheese Enchiladas

I realized last night that I needed a new plan for tonight's dinner. I had originally put falafel on my menu plan, but I realized last night that all I had to go with it was hummus. So, I had to come up with something else. I wanted to stick with a vegetarian meal, but I couldn't come up with anything looking through my fridge, freezer, and pantry. So, I turned to RecipeZaar.com. I remembered I had just bought some goat cheese at Costco, so I searched on that and then narrowed it down to simple main dish recipes. This was one of the first that came up, and I have everything on hand--including some things I'd like to use up before we leave on Sunday. Perfect!! Now I just have to decide if the husband and I will wait and have dinner after the boy goes to bed.

Three-Cheese Enchiladas
Recipe #369657

1 medium yellow onion
1 small red bell pepper
4 scallions
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 ounces monterey jack cheese
1 1/2 ounces goat cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons salsa or taco sauce (hot or mild)
8 corn tortillas
1 (10 ounce) can red chili sauce or enchilada sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mince yellow onion; stem, seed, and finely dice bell pepper (there should be about 1/2 cup each). Mince scallions. Heat 2 t. oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until softened, about 4 minutes. Add bell pepper, half the scallions, and the cumin; cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Grate Monterey Jack cheese. Place half the grated cheese, the goat and cream cheeses, salsa, and onion mixture in mixing bowl; stir until blended.

Wipe out skillet. Heat remaining 1 T. oil in skillet over medium heat. Briefly cook tortillas, 1 at a time, in oil until pliable, not crisp, about 1 minute each side. Spoon cheese mixture onto tortillas and roll up, folding ends under. Place in 10x8-inch baking dish. Spoon red chili sauce over enchildadas. Sprinkle with remaining grated cheese and scallions. Bake until very hot, 15-20 minutes.

© 2009 Recipezaar

*****

I don't have a red pepper, so I'll have to come up with something else for that or just skip it. I don't have enough Monterey Jack cheese, so I figure I'll substitute cheddar. Oh, and I'm going to use whole wheat flour tortillas instead of corn. Reading over this recipe again, I'll probably increase the amount of each cheese...doesn't sound like a whole lot, and you know how we LOVE cheese!

*****

I didn't end up making these, but I'm keeping the post here because I want to make them at some point. My mom called that day inviting us to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner on Saturday night, so I moved the lasagna to Friday night.

Verde Pork Enchiladas

One of the blogs I follow, Gumbo Ya Ya, had a really good sounding recipe posted recently for Pork Chili Verde. You might remember me mentioning last week a recipe I had planned to make but was missing a main ingredient...that was this. That day as I was thinking about this recipe I thought, "Why couldn't you do it in the crockpot?" So I decide to change it up a bit and do it that way. Because I live on the edge like that and am such a non-conformist. Yeah right. I used most of the same ingredients called for in the original recipe, just changed up the method a bit.

Verde Pork Enchiladas
1 1-lb pork loin roast
1 28 ounce can green enchilada sauce
1 small can diced green chilies
whole wheat enchiladas
shredded Mexican blend cheese

Place pork roast in slow cooker and pour green chilies and enchilada sauce over roast. Cover crockpot, cook on high three hours or until pork roast is cooked through. Remove roast and shred meat with two forks. Mix in a few ladels of sauce from the crockpot.

Coat an 11x7 baking dish with cooking spray. Cover bottom of dish with some of the sauce from the crockpot. Spoon some pork down the middle of a tortilla, top with cheddar cheese, and roll the enchilada. Place seam side down in baking dish. Repeat until all the pork is gone. Pour sauce over the enchiladas (however much you want) and then cover with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 for 25 minutes.

*****

I ended up having enough pork to make seven enchiladas which fit perfectly in my dish. You could, of course, use a bigger pork roast and fill a 9x13 pan with the enchiladas, I just happened to have a one pound roast in the freezer.

This was SUPER TASTY. We all really liked it. It was so easy to do the meat in the slow cooker, too, although next time I'd probably put some seasoning on the meat first to give it a little oomph--maybe some onion powder, garlic powder, and maybe a little chipotle chili powder for some added spice and heat. This is something I will definitely make again. I put the roast in my crockpot in the morning and then assembled the enchiladas during naptime and stuck the pan in the fridge. it made dinner super easy!!

White Girl Enchiladas

This is actually last night's dinner, but I felt guilty not posting it since I'm trying to be better about posting everything I make. And now that I've come out and said it, I'm that much more likely to actually do it since I don't want to get angry comments along the lines of, "You said you were going to be better about posting...why haven't you posted in three days?" But, rarely does anyone leave me a comment so it's probably not a valid concern.

Anyway, I call these my white girl enchiladas because 1) I'm a white girl, and 2) I don't think any Mexican would actually make enchiladas this way. Both kids are napping right now (or at least they're both in their rooms being quiet), so I'm not going to be overly verbose today so I can enjoy this peaceful time alone before the madness begins again.

White Girl Enchiladas
1-2 lbs chicken (depending on how much you are making)
1-2 small cans of diced green chilis
8 oz block of cream cheese
8-10 flour tortillas
15 oz. can Green Chili enchilada sauce
1 pkg. Cheddar/Mexican Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook chicken and shred or cut into small pieces in a pan on the stove. Cut up 8 oz. of cream cheese into small pieces so it melts easier. Mix chicken with cream cheese and 1-2 cans of diced green chilis (depending on how spicy you want them) in the pan on medium heat.

Fill each tortilla with mix and fold up. Place into a lightly greased cooking pan, folded side down. Pour cheese and sauce over the enchiladas and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

*****

I had a bit of a chicken mishap over the weekend, so I had chicken meat to use from that. remember that roasted chicken I kept planning on making last week? I was finally going to cook it on Saturday night, but then we talked about going out to dinner, so I threw it in the crockpot in the morning because I didn't want it to sit out another day. We went about our day, took the boy to Zoo Lights because the first time we went it was rainy and horribly cold, then I went to hang out with Jen B. while her husband came over here to hang out with mine. I got home around 10:30 and smelled something in the kitchen. Yeah...it was the chicken. Oops. Thankfully it had been cooking on low all day. It literally fell completely apart when I pulled it out of there. I had planned on making stock with the bones, but I have a big container now of bones, skin, fat, and some pieces of chicken, so I can't decide if I should go ahead and have my first attempt at making my own stock or wait until I have a more intact chicken carcass to use.

Anyway...these enchiladas were really good, as usual. They're so easy to make--especially if using leftover chicken. I didn't have quite enough cream cheese, so I threw in some sour cream as well. I didn't notice much of a difference.

White Girl Enchiladas

Generally when I cook a whole chicken it's because I want chicken meat leftover for something else to make later in the week. I hadn't had these enchiladas in a loooooooooooooooooooong time, and they sounded really good to me.

I told the story last time I made these of how they got their name, but basically my Hispanic boss at the time told me that no Mexican would make enchiladas like this when I told her about the recipe, that they were white girl enchiladas. I thought it was funny, so that's what I started calling them. The recipe was originally from my friend Lauren.

White Girl Enchiladas
1-2 lbs chicken (depending on how much you are making)
1-2 small cans of diced green chilis
8 oz block of cream cheese
8-10 flour tortillas
15 oz. can Green Chili enchilada sauce
1 pkg. Cheddar/Mexican Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook chicken and shred or cut into small pieces in a pan on the stove. Cut up 8 oz. of cream cheese into small pieces so it melts easier. Mix chicken with cream cheese and 1-2 cans of diced green chilis (depending on how spicy you want them) in the pan on medium heat.

Fill each tortilla with mix and fold up. Place into a lightly greased cooking pan, folded side down. Pour cheese and sauce over the enchiladas and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

*****

They're pretty easy to make and quick to assemble. And they taste oh-so-yummy. I don't know if I have quite enough chicken leftover from the other night, so I'm going to cook up an extra chicken breast, too. I didn't really plan anything to have with it, but I'll come up with something. There's some of the slaw mixture left from last night's fish tacos, so we may have that on the side.

Pam's Enchiladas

I thought about calling these "White Girl Enchiladas #2" but then figured I'd give credit where credit was due. Remember how I said a few weeks ago I love recipes handed down to me? Or something along those lines, it was when I made a pasta salad. This is another recipe like that...only enchiladas, not pasta salad. It's from a family friend, Pam. I've known her my whole life, her daughter Shelby was one of my best friends growing up. She gave me this recipe at my bridal shower, along with her homemade pizza recipe which is freakin' awesome. I haven't made that in awhile, maybe that will be added in to rotation soon.

Anyway, these are definitely white folk enchiladas, but I figure that's okay since I am white folk. I haven't made them in years. Our church has a new outreach minister that just started, and we're having him over for dinner tonight. I couldn't come up with what to make and then finally thought of this after thinking of my other white girl enchilada recipe. My friend Jen made some awesome pinto beans when we were at her house for dinner on Saturday, so I'm going to try and recreate them, although I imagine mine will be a little different since I don't have some of the spices she used.

Pam's Enchiladas
2 lbs hamburger
1 chopped onion
1 can chopped olives
1 small can green chilies
1 pint sour cream
1 lb grated cheddar cheese
2 cans cream of chicken soup
12 flour tortillas

Brown hamburger and onion. Drain fat. Add other ingredients, reserving some cheese. Pour hot mixture into tortillas, roll, and arrange in 9x13 pan. Pour remaining mixture over top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350.

*****

See? No Mexican would make enchiladas this way, or at least I don't think they would. Oh but they're sooo yummy. I usually take a few bites of the sauce because I heart it so much. I'm getting it together this afternoon so I don't have to be in the kitchen the whole time our guest is here.

Oh, and I'm cooking it in my new Le Creuset buffet casserole pan!! I heart it so much! I used it last night to make the pork chops and swamp, too. I'd post a picture, but both our cameras are upstairs. It looks like this:



But it's in this color:

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

AKA Lauren's Enchiladas
AKA White Girl Enchiladas

So this recipe originally came from my friend Lauren. Five of my friends and I started a monthly cooking club several years ago (before any of us had kids and could still go do fun stuff on week nights), and the hostess always made the main dish then we'd all bring side dishes or salad or dessert to go with. When Lauren hosted, this is what she made. It was so good. She sent me the recipe the next day, and I've been making it ever since. That was at least three years ago if not more. Remember awhile back I said that I had two enchilada recipes I used when I had leftover chicken? This is the other one. Since it was Lauren's recipe, I called it Lauren's enchiladas.

Now, probably two years ago or so I was telling my boss I was making enchiladas for dinner. She's Mexican and asked how I did them. I told her. She laughed and said, "Claire, no Mexican would make enchiladas that way. Those are white girl enchiladas." So, then they became "White Girl Enchiladas" which is a funny name I think.

Long story short (too late), this is what I made to take to my friend Cindy for dinner. Her little baby boy, Ryan Arthur, was born six weeks early but was only in the NICU for a few days before being sent home. I think this is his second or third week home now. I can't remember, I've had so many friends having babies lately and so many that are pregnant, I can't keep track of who was born or will be born when. Anyway, this is what they are having for dinner. I'm kind of jealous...it's one of my favorites.

White Girl Enchiladas
1-2 lbs chicken (depending on how much you are making)
1-2 small cans of diced green chilis
8 oz block of cream cheese
8-10 flour tortillas
15 oz. can Green Chili enchilada sauce
1 pkg. Cheddar/Mexican Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook chicken and shred or cut into small pieces in a pan on the stove. Cut up 8 oz. of cream cheese into small pieces so it melts easier. Mix chicken with cream cheese and 1-2 cans of diced green chilis (depending on how spicy you want them) in the pan on medium heat.

Fill each tortilla with mix and fold up. Place into a lightly greased cooking pan, folded side down. Pour cheese and sauce over the enchiladas and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

*****

I always use chicken that's already cooked when I make these, so I just use whatever I have left. Another easy option is to get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery. I also use the big can of enchilada sauce (even though I usually have some left) and pour a little of that in to the chicken mixture while it's on the stove.