Pollo Verde Enchiladas, Spanish Brown Rice & Refried Beans

Finally! Hello! I’ve been sitting on this one for about a month, because I just don’t have a lot of time to blog. I’ve been looking for another job, which has been going wonderfully, again. And I ended up getting rid of my zombie apocalypse machine of a Range Rover in favor of a small and fast, grocery getter. And I’m not even sad.

Onto the food, yes?

This is another recipe from my brothers ex-girlfriend. She use to use Bueno Chile which is delicious, frozen and in a pinch, is a life saver. You literally follow the directions on the back, which call for a little four, water and some thaw time and you’ve got a delicious red or green enchilada sauce that you would swear is home made. That’s about where the compliments on her version of this dish, end. She used canned chicken. Canned. So I’ve fixed a few things and jazzed it up, because, well, that’s what I do, in the kitchen. In college, when I was working my booty off for nothing, some meals just had to come from the dollar store. So I learned how to spice up canned enchilada sauce with fresh veggies. That’s what I did this time, but because we had an extra can and I really wanted to make this damn dish! SO, I’ll post another recipe that calls for my REAL chile verde sauce and you’ll see how I make it by hand, from fresh chiles!

Mmmm…. Looks delicious, right?

CHICKEN:
First, you’ll need to cook the chicken.

I usually use the kind with the skin left on, because it gives the chicken more flavor, you can use the fat in the refried beans and since the rest of this dish is pretty healthy, depending on how you make it, it doesn’t really matter to me that the skin is there.

INGREDIENTS:
6 breasts of chicken
1 tbsp of chili powder, thyme, rosemary, red pepper, black pepper and garlic powder
1 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:
Cook the chicken in a large pot, over medium heat with enough water to cover half the chicken.

When chicken is cooked through, remove the lid and cook until the chicken is golden brown. Set aside to shred later!

Oh, chopping the chicken into large pieces will help it cool a lot faster if you cooked a bunch, like I do when I make freezer meals out of this!

SAUCE:
It’s super simple, when made this way.

INGREDIENTS:
1 large can of Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
1 medium can of diced green chiles (again, this is the “cheating” version of this recipe, I usually use roasted hatch chiles, but they’re not quite in season yet.)
2 small white onions, diced and processed in a food processor
2 1/2 green peppers, diced and processed in a food processor
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp of crushed red pepper, black pepper, cumin, oregano, thyme, rosemary and garlic powder

 

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions and peppers. Cook until onions become translucent and peppers are soft. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes, covered, reducing heat if need be.

 

 

REFRIEND BEANS:
The refried beans are easy, and the recipe can be found here.

SPANISH BROWN RICE:
The recipe can be found here the only difference is I used brown rice. I like it better and Mo does too now, so I win another food war I didn’t have to fight! I love it!

Also, shred about 1/2lb of colby jack cheese and about a 1/4lb of Velveeta.

Last but not least, tortillas! You will use the same process to layer the enchiladas as was used on the pollo rojo enchiladas, found in the link above. So you’ll need to measure your baking dish in tortillas, multiply that by 4 and pop that many corn tortillas in the oven, on 350 until they’re ALMOST crispy, but still flexible.

ASSEMBLY TIME!

I know I explained this before in the last enchilada post, but it’s worth repeating. I don’t roll my ladas. I layer, like lasagna.

Layer the tortillas, chicken, sauce and cheese, making the bottom layer the thickest.

Cover with tortillas, tearing them in half, if you have to, it’s fine. Do another layer, thinner than the first, cover with tortillas.

Then use the remaining sauce to cover the tortillas, if you have any tortillas left over. Because the ones on the edge of the oven can often burn, I over estimate how many tortillas I’ll need and if they get too crispy, hey, we have chips! Break a couple of them up and layer them on top of the dish, cover with cheese and tin foil (remember to use toothpicks so the foil doesn’t ruin your pretty presentation!) and pop in the oven at 350!

In about half an hour, take off the tinfoil and turn the heat up to 400 and bake until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown! Let it sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven or it will fall apart completely, which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a gooey delicious mess, but for presentations purposes, just let it sit.

Enjoy!