I know I have been MIA the last few weeks and I do apoligize. I have not been in my kitchen cooking very much at all. Mike and I enjoyed a fabulous week long vacation in Costa Rica were we got to indulge in some very much needed R & R. We enjoyed some delicious Costa Rican food, amazing Pacific coast sunsets, went surfing and zip lining and, oh, we got ENGAGED!!! What a wonederful trip we had to say the least! 🙂 We are already talking about going back some day.
Anyways, back to the reason you're reading this blog, the food! This week I decided to try a new version of enchillada's from Cooking Light. Enchilladas are one of my favorite foods. How can you go wrong with tender juicy meat, gooey cheese and mexican flavors? Cooking Light recommended using chicken thighs, I swapped out the thighs for chicken breasts (probably slightly more healthy). This dish was delicious and pretty darn easy. Serves 6 and was great for lunches and leftover dinners. Enjoy.
(Missing from above photo: Chicken Breasts, they were too big to fit in the photo)
Ingredients:
2 cups diced onion 1 (15 oz) can of crushed tomatoes 6 tbsp of mexican crema ( find in mexican/hispanic section of grocery store) 1 cup diced cilantro 8 oz of salsa verde ( green salsa ) 12 corn tortillas (taco size) 2lbs chicken breast or thighs 8 cloves garlic, minced 3 tbsp lime juice 3/4 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded 1 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 2 tbsp canola oil (adjust spices as needed to cover chicken breasts) We topped our enchilladas with some fresh slices of avocado. Yum!
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
1) Season chicken breasts with cumin, cayenne and salt on both sides. Heat oven safe pan (if you have one) on medium- high heat. Heat canola oil for a 1-2 minutes. Saute chicken for approx 4 minutes on one side. Flip over chicken and remove from heat. Drain oil. ( If not using an oven safe pan, get out your roasting pan. Place roasting pan in oven while oven is preheating to 425 degrees)
2) Add tomatoes, onion and garlic to pan with chicken. If using a roasting pan. Remove roasting pan from oven. Add chicken (uncooked side up) with ingredients listed above. Stir to coat chicken and mix ingredients together. Place in oven for approx 15-20 minutes or until your chicken reaches an internal temp. of 165 degrees.
4) Place chicken into medium size bowl and shred chicken with fork/knife combo. This will take a little bit of some muscle work. If I had used chicken thighs, this process may have been easier.
5) Whisk together salsa verde, lime juice and cilantro in small bowl. Grease bottom of an 11 x7 baking dish. Place approx. 1/4 cup of salsa mixture on bottom of pan.
6) Layer 4 corn tortillas onto bottom of pan. Layer 1/2 of chicken mixture ontop of tortillas.
7) Add another 1/4 cup of salsa mixture ontop of chicken mixture. Repeat steps 6 and 7 one more time with remaining chicken mixture and another 1/4 of salsa mixture.
8)Place last 4 tortillas on top of chicken/salsa mixture. Pour remaining salsa mixture ontop of tortillas and spread to coat evenly.
9) Top with pepper jack cheese to cover top. Bake in 425 degree oven for approx 15 minutes. I put my oven on broil for the last 3 minutes to get my cheese bubbly 🙂
Top each serving with 1 tbsp of crema and cilantro. I added a few slices of fresh avocado.
Approx 385 calories, 17 grams of fat per serving. They were quite large servings as well.
Recipe adapted from: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/stacked-chicken-enchiladas-50400000133641/
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