*Everybody asks where I got this recipe, because it’s authentic, complicated and delicious. To be honest, I stole the IDEA from my brothers ex girlfriend. She use to make this with only canned chicken and frozen chile. She would deep fry the tortillas and didn’t add anything to the sauce or attempt to jazz it up at all, so I “fixed” her recipe!
I’m not going to lie, these bad boys can be A LOT of work. But if you buy extra of everything, you can assemble a couple and pop them in the freezer for later! To reheat, bake at 400F until cooked and melted thoroughly. The rice and beans can be prepared and frozen too, making this almost way too easy later for a dinner party, ahem, FIESTA!
Mmmmmm, right? This was almost the first meal I ever ruined. I almost burned it, the tortillas, the chicken and the sauce while preparing everything to put it all together! Thankfully, it actually turned out delicious and my BFF finally sampled my cooking and absolutely LOVED it!
I use a 9x11 casserole dish, so all the ingredients are measured for that size!
TORTILLAS:
I use yellow corn tortillas. Like I said I don’t roll, I layer, so I need to crisp my tortillas up so they don’t turn to mush. Like I said before, the original recipe was to fry them in oil. It was a HUGE mess and was disgustingly unhealthy. So, I bake them in the oven now! Use your casserole dish and layer the tortillas so the bottom of the dish is covered, with no gaps. Sometimes it helps to break the tortillas into pieces later to fit properly, so count for extra tortilla “patches”. Count how many tortillas you have and multiply by 3. Bake the tortillas until pliable, but crispy. Keep your eye on them though, they burn quickly. Mine charred while I was trying to wrangle toddlers and cook chicken and sauce at the same time…
CHICKEN:
3-4 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes, cumin, thyme, granulated garlic
I cook the chicken first. In a large pot with just enough water to almost cover the chicken, this works on chicken right out of the freezer, like I’ve said before, I rarely defrost meat. Season the chicken with a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, cumin, thyme and garlic, fresh or granulated, but not garlic salt. Cook the chicken on medium high, covered, for about 15 minutes. Uncover, reduce the heat and flip the chicken. Continue cooking, uncovered, until all the liquid is absorbed and the chicken is browned. Don’t be afraid of burning the chicken, I know it sounds counterproductive, but since you’re shredding it, searing it a little bit just adds more flavor. I chop the chicken, so I don’t have to wait for it to cool, you can shred if that’s your thing, it all turns out the same.
SAUCE:
14 sundried red chile pods
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1/2 large white onion
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp cumin
38 oz water
2/3 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced, you can used granulated garlic. Just use about 1/2 the amount as fresh.
1/2 tsp oregano
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp unbleached flour
Remove stems and seeds from chile pods and rinse. Soak pods in lukewarm water for about 3 minutes or until they’re soft. In a sauce pan, simmer the water and the pods for about 20 minutes on low heat. Meanwhile, chop the onion and bell peppers into to pieces and sauté in a large skillet with a drizzle of olive oil, until semi soft and maybe a little seared. Remove from heat, once cool, blend in food processor until smooth and set aside in a bowl. Once the pods are cooked and soft, place them in the food processor with half of the cooking liquid, salt, garlic and oregano. Process until smooth and add to the other puree. Using the same skillet from the onion and bell peppers, heat oil over medium heat, add flour and stir until golden brown. Remove from heat, add blended chile mixture to roux and whisk until any lumps dissolve. Return to heat and slowly combine remaining cooking liquid until your desired sauce consistency is reached. Continue cooking on very low heat, covered, for a few minutes.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Grate about a pound of colby jack cheese. I use Joseph Farms because it’s humanely raised, fed an all natural, vegetarian diet and the cows are free to roam and reproduce. All gravy in my opinion.
Moooooving on. <---- Get it?
Layer the tortillas allotted for the bottom of the dish, then use a little over half the chicken to make the next layer. Cover with cheese. Next, using a ladle, add the chile sauce, enough to cover the bottom layer. Repeat using the next batch of tortillas, the rest of your chicken, some cheese, and a good helping of sauce. Next, use the rest of your tortillas, broken up a bit for effect, and layer on top, cover with remaining sauce, THEN cheese.
Cover loosely with tin foil, or use tooth picks to keep foil from falling into cheese. Place in the oven, preheated from the tortilla baking, to 300F, and wait about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until brown and bubbly!
YES…. There’s more. How do you think the rice and beans got there? And no, they’re not boxed or canned.
BEANS:
I use an entire package of pinto beans when I make beans, because I freeze them in batches to refry later, use in soups or chili, or whatever else I need beans for! However, I did not know that the average gringa, doesn’t know how to refry beans, or what the secret is… It’s REALLY not that hard. Here we go….
Rinse your beans. Yea, I said it. The beans might be dirty, they need a good washing. Wash those beans. Next, in your crock pot, soak the beans over night. If you still have a lid on your crock pot in the morning, good luck, otherwise, if you’re like me, remove half the beans for later or get a bigger crock pot. An entire package of beans is A LOT of beans. Cover the beans with water and cook on medium, all day. Check after a couple of hours to see if beans are squishable yet. Once the beans are cooked, remove from the crock pot, portion out the amount you need for dinner, and freeze the rest!
In a medium sauce pan, over medium low heat, simmer the beans with enough liquid to cover the beans. Using a bean masher, mash the beans, until desired consistency is reached. Salt to taste, do NOT forget this part, they’re an ugly mess with no salt.
SPANISH RICE:
2 cups of white rice. You can use brown, I think it tastes fine, but it’s not as authentic.
3 cups of water
1 cup hot salsa, I use Herdez brand red salsa.
1 heaping tbsp of Knorr Tomato bullion
2 tbsp of stick butter or 2 tbsp of olive oil
In a large skillet, heat the butter or oil over medium/high heat. Add the rice and cook until it starts to get a nice golden brown color to it. Add the water, salsa and bullion. Stir and mix together until it starts to boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Just add more water if it absorbs before the rice is cooked…. Obviously.
You can freeze the beans, the enchiladas and the rice, once cooked and cooled. But, if you’re going to freeze the rice, I suggest cooking it, al dente, then letting it cool and dry out for about an hour, then portion it out to freeze it. To re-heat, just refrigerate until thawed, and either microwave with a little extra water or back in a sauce pan with some water until the rice is tender!
Well, that is it. That is all there is to this wonderfully simple meal. Haha! This is why I say assemble before hand and freeze any part you can! Even the enchilada sauce, when cooked in large batches, can be frozen in little portioned containers!
I hope you give this a try! The work is well worth it, and honestly, we’re all, mostly, Mom’s here, life is a lot of work, if you don’t do most of that work in the kitchen, your life will be more work elsewhere. Healthy food makes for healthy families and when you put effort into a meal like this, the person you’re cooking for, notices and appreciates. And yes, after a meal like this I do the dishes and clean up. I don’t share chores in this house, and ladies, neither should you.
Now get up and get in the kitchen!
