I love nothing better than a quality enchilade dish. I am adventurous when it comes to food and love to try new dishes. However, this is one dish that I tend to order over and over when in Mexican restaurants, enchilades. These green sauce enchilades take a bit of time, but make a wonderful dinner. Add some refried beans and a salad and you will impress your guests and satisfy their taste buds.
Enchilades Verdes Style
This recipe is my iteration on a green enchilada recipe. These can be frozen, but they are so good I doubt there will be many left behind!
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 tsp Canola oil
- 1 white onion diced
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1½ lbs bonelss skinless chicken breasts
Verdes Sauce
- 1 ½ lbs tomatillos Make suret hese are green, not yellow in color, firm and of good quality, remove the husks and stems, rinse and dry. You can use canned, but the fresh makes this dish so much better.
- 3 Poblano Chiles stemmed, halved and seeded. Cut a small piece and taste. Although Poblanos don’t have the same dramatic variation in spice as jalapeno’s, they can be more or less spicy and hot. So taste and adjust as you feel the need.
- 1-2 Jalapeno chilis, stemmed, halved and seeded. I add these since I enjoy more heat and spice. Cut a small piece from the jalapeno and taste. Some are very mild, almost like green peppers, some very spicy. So adjust based on how hot you want this sauce
- 1-2½ tsp honey
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- 1 Garlic clove minded fine
- 2-3 Scallions sliced thin on the bias
Assembly, cooking and serving
- ½ cup fresh chopped cilantro
- 8 oz sharp cheddar (Monterey jack can be substituted, but I love the sharpness of the Cheddar)
- 12+ Fresh corn tortillas, homemade or store bought
- 2-3 scallions sliced thin on the bias
- Radishes thinly sliced
- Sour cream
Instructions
Chicken
- Heat 2 tsp of oil in a saucepan until shimmering and add the onion. Cook until softened and fragrant. Then add the cumin, 2/3rds of the garlic and cook, again until fragrant.
- Decrease the heat to low and add the chicken broth and the chicken.
- Simmer, covered, until the temperature internally of the chicken is 160 degrees F, about 15-20 minutes.
- Measure out 1 cup of the broth mixture and reserve [the remainder of the broth can be used for ramen].
Verdes Sauce
- Toss the washed and prepared tomatillos, jalepenos and the poblanos in 2 tsp of vegetable oil. You can cut the larger tomatillos in half.
- Adjust the oven rack to about 6 inches from the broil element.
- Place these with the cut side down on a cookie sheet. Broil until the skins are black, but watch this closely.
- Remove from the oven, place the chilies in a plastic bag (once they have cooled a bit). This helps with removal of the skin.
- When the chilies are cool enough, peel off the thick skin
- Place the tomatillos and chilies in a food processor. Add 1 tsp honey (you can add more to taste), salt, garlic, and reserved chicken cooking liquid and process until a bit chunky.
- Add the scallions.
- You can hold back a poblano and/or a jalapeno if you wish. Taste, add more salt, honey, chilies to your taste. It should have a bit of a kick as far as I am concerned.
Assembly,cooking and serving
- When the chicken is cool, shred it up with your hands (much easier as far as I am concerned).
- Mix the Chicken, cilantro and the about 2/3rds of the cheese (the remainder you can sprinkle on top of the dish). I add the scallions at this point, but they can also be used to sprinkle over the encilades.
- Spray the baking dish with cooking spray, then place about ¾ cup of the Verde sauce over the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking dish
- Take the fresh home-made (or store bought) tortillas, steam them if necessary to make them more pliable. Place some of the chicken mixture inthe tortilla, roll up the tortilla and place in the baking dish.
- Pour the remainder of the Verde sauce over the enchiladas.
- Sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese and scallions on top of the encilades
- Bake until the sauce is bubbling. Have the radishes and sour cream on the table to be used as desired.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
