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Cooking is a wholesome and satisfying hobby. If you are looking for something to treat your taste buds in a healthy way, chicken enchilada is the best recipe for you. Enchiladas are the most famous Tex-Mex delicacy across the globe. People also like meat or beef enchilada but the recipe of chicken enchilada remains on top.
You don’t have to be a culinary expert to make chicken enchiladas. Anyone with a basic know-how of cooking can pull them off with easily available ingredients. In case you are still not sure, we are here to help. Follow our recipe with detailed steps to come up with an aromatic and scrumptious version of enchiladas.
Here is our version of chicken enchiladas to treat your taste buds.
Total Time : 1 hour
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time : 30 minute
Serves four people
Ingredients
Tortillas: 8 in number (of your choice)
Chicken (slow-cooked or boiled) : 2 cups
Red enchiladas sauce: 2 cups
Cheddar cheese : 3 cups (cut in small pieces)
Sour cream: 1 cup
Green Chilies: 4 ounces (diced)
White onion : 1, small (peeled and chopped)
Green onions : 3 to 4 (for garnish)
Cilantro: a small bunch (for garnish)
Cooking oil: 2 to 3 tablespoons
Steps for Preparation
First of all, put the oil in a skillet and heat it up on medium-low flame. Add onions and cook for two to three minutes to soften them.
Now add shredded and boiled chicken in it and mix it up. Cook it for a while to make it crispy. You may opt for slow-cooked or grilled chicken too.
Take the chicken and onion mixture off the flame. Let it cool at room temperature. After that, place it in a bowl. Add half of the total amount of cheddar cheese, green chilies and sour cream. Give all these ingredients a good mix.
Take another bowl and put red enchiladas sauce in it. After that, dip all the tortillas in it completely. Ensure that the sauce covers all the enchiladas completely.
Take 2 tortillas and spread in your baking tray. Place almost one-third cup of filling on one side of the tortilla and wrap it tightly. Repeat it with all the tortillas and place them in the baking tray while their seam side is downwards.
Pour all the remaining sauce on the enchiladas. Grate half the cheese and spread it over the enchiladas.
Preheat the oven on 235 F and bake the enchiladas for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Don’t forget to cover the tray while baking. After twenty-five minutes, uncover the tray and bake it for five more minutes.
Remove the dish from the oven and serve it with your favorite side dishes.
We have also compiled a list of side dishes which go perfectly well with chicken enchiladas.
Side Dishes with Chicken Enchiladas
You may choose any dish to go with your main dish to balance out the things. Since chicken enchiladas is a meaty dish, fresh salads and tangy lime seasoning will be the perfect choice to go with it.
Make corn salad with a generous amount of lemon and olive oil as seasoning. Sprinkle salt and pepper for seasoning and you are good to go.
Cut cabbage in Julian and give it a good mix with lemon and green chilies.
Caesar salad or Mexican salad will also make good side dishes with this main dish. You may like to go for Mexican style cornbread or guacamole for a more traditional touch.
For a more spicy option, make green rice with green chilies, cilantro and mint as main ingredient. This is the best option if you have used mild sauces in chicken enchiladas.
That Secret is Out Now!
Most of the people complain that they never get that particular restaurant taste when they make chicken enchiladas at home. The reason is that they use store-bought sauces in the dish.
Preparing homemade sauce does not take so long as you think. It hardly takes fifteen minutes and you get that original, savory, Mexican sauce. We are sharing two recipes of sauces with you here.
Red Enchiladas Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken or vegetable stock: as required
Cooking oil : 2 tablespoon
Flour: 2 tablespoons
Chili powder: as per taste
Garlic powder: 1 tablespoon
Salt : as per taste
Cumin powder : 1 tablespoon
Dried oregano: a tablespoon
Method
Pour oil in a pan and heat it up on low flame. Add the flour gradually and stir it continuously. Try not to make clots.
Now add all the seasoning including chilies, cumin powder, garlic powder, oregano and salt. Keep stirring on the low flame for one minute.
Next, gradually add the vegetable or chicken broth (you only have to boil some vegetables and chicken to make it). keep stirring the mixture to avoid any clumps.
Let it simmer until it reaches your desired consistency. Your perfect homemade enchiladas sauce is ready.
Here is another version of enchiladas sauce you must try for an exquisite experience.
Green Enchiladas Sauce
Ingredients
Jalapeno : 2 to 3
Green chilies: as per taste (roasted)
Garlic: 10 cloves
Red onions: 1 big
Chicken or vegetable stock: as per requirement
Cumin powder: 1 tablespoon
Salt and pepper: as per taste
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
Method:
First of all, take olive oil and heat it up on low flame. Add jalapenos, garlic and onion and sauté it for five minutes. You want them soft.
Take it off the flame and cool it at room temperature. Put the cooked vegetables and other ingredients including seasoning and chicken or vegetable stock in a mixer. Blend it well and adjust seasoning and spices.
The Yummy Healthy Twist; Is Chicken Enchiladas Healthy?
People have become more and more health-conscious nowadays. Eating right has become the top trend in modern lifestyles. Enchilada is a healthy recipe since you can always customize the filling and tortillas. You may experiment with whole grain, oats, corn, or other healthy options. All these options are full of fiber and you can consume them as per your choice.
Similarly, adding healthy filling like green veggies, fish, or any other of your choice can make them a healthy diet. Chicken is already full of protein diets with low fat. Enjoy your chicken enchiladas without any stress
Fill in the Fun!
Selecting a filling which suits you the best is such an enjoyable step. There are endless options for this part of chicken enchiladas. Keeping chicken as the main ingredient, you may experiment with a range of seasoning. You may go for cheese, Italian seasoning or hot spices. Black pepper, red chilies, cumin seed, garlic, ginger and oregano, all are good options to make your chicken enchiladas more flavourful. Go easy on chilies and peppers if you are not used to spicy food.
The main ingredients of filling which you may combine with chicken are also in abundance. Cook, roast r grill any type of meat and shred it to make a wonderful filling for enchiladas. Add vegetables like onions, diced avocados, pre-cooked sweet potatoes, beans, and other vegetables of your choice as filling. However, make sure that too tough vegetables like beans or sweet potatoes are pre-cooked.
Add raw olives, cucumbers, pickled vegetables, and jalapenos for an extra twist in your chicken enchiladas. For extra healthy options, you may replace chicken with grilled or baked fish. Please ensure the removal of any bones from the fish before filling in the enchiladas.
Follow a rule that if the filling is too spicy, the sauces must be mild and vice versa.
How to Plan Chicken Enchiladas?
People tend to confuse what to do first since making chicken enchiladas involves many steps. Along with the recipe, we have simplified the process with a full guide on what to do first. Follow our recommendations and save time!
Plan Out Your Enchiladas
The first step is to check out your ingredients. Check for main ingredients first, like chicken, if you intend to make chicken enchiladas. Consider the ingredients for tortillas too. Check out your fridge and kitchen to see what you can add with chicken as filling or use for garnishing.
The traditional version of tortillas is corn but you may experiment with flour or any other option of your choice. The standard size of tortillas is 6” corn and 7” to 8” for flour ones since most of the pan can accommodate these sizes. However, thinking out of the box is always fun!
Our Suggestion:
Since most of the people prefer corn tortillas, we have a tip for you. Heating the tortillas make them more flexible and thus you can fold them around easily. For this purpose, put them in the oven at 350 F after wrapping up in a foil. The difference in the taste will speak for itself!
Make sure that you have all the ingredients according to the recipe.
Dive in the Filling
This is the second step of making chicken enchiladas. We have shared filling options in detail above. Select any of the fillings of your choice and prepare it. Dice the onions, chopped garlic, and tomatoes. Boiling, grilling, baking, or cooking your chicken, meat, or fish in any other way is also a part of this step.
Shred the meat after cooking and mix it up with any ingredients or spices of your choice. You need to do all the broiling, blanching, and chopping the vegetables for filling in this step. This step ends when your filling is ready to go inside the tortillas.
Our Suggestion:
Whatever type of filling you choose, estimate the total amount of it according to one-third cup of filling for each tortilla.
Wrapping Time
Take a spoon and spread an almost one-third cup of the filling you prepared in the previous step on half of the tortilla. Do not let it go all around the tortillas. Now, roll the tortillas to secure the filling. Take a baking dish and place the tortillas inside it.
If all of your tortillas don’t fit in the baking tray, place them on the sides, along with the edges, upwards.
Tips & Tricks
Achieving perfection in cooking is a heavenly satisfying feeling. Here are some more secret tips to make you an expert in making chicken enchiladas.
The Oil Barrier
If you don’t want soggy tortillas, fry them in oil for one minute. The oil of frying will work as a barrier against the water in the sauce and tortillas will not be soggy.
Too Much of Everything is Bad!
People try to add more flavor to their enchiladas by using huge amounts of sauce. They usually end up with soggy, mushy enchiladas. The ideal amount of sauce for a tray of eight tortillas is four cups.
Similarly, don’t leave the tortillas in the sauce for too long before baking. Only coat them with sauce and do the filling part quickly.
Don’t underestimate Garnishing!
In Mexican foods, garnishing is not only for decorative purposes. It adds to the taste and texture of the foods also. You can use it to balance out the flavors of the ingredients of your enchiladas.
Tangy, fresh pickles and fresh cilantro will add a fresh taste in the heavy, cheese and chicken flavor. Chopped onions with sour cream can add an extra Mexican touch in your enchiladas.
You may like to use extra roasted ginger or garlic if you are a fan of strong flavors. A sprinkle of baked red kidney beans and flakes of red chilies is again a typical Mexican garnishing. This garnishing goes perfectly well if your sauce was mild and you want to heat the things up.
Conclusion
Chicken enchiladas make a perfect dinner dish and you can pull it off very easily. This article guides you through all the secrets to have this perfectly baked Mexican delicacy in the easiest way. Some other suggestions are also provided regarding the health aspects of this recipe so you can easily make your mind for trying it. Try out our recipe and you will definitely lick your fingers!
