I ‘m so glad I did this month’s Daring Cooks’ challenge; it was very, very good- hot and spicy delicious to the max! ;)  Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

Making this dish is not exactly easy although the recipe is simple enough to follow. I read it over and over until I can picture it clearly it my mind but still it took me over a couple of hours to finish the whole dish from making my own flour tortilla to plating the dish. I think I can make it a lot faster next time since I don’t have to stop once in a while to wash my hands and take photos :).   But I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures of the finished dish because my husband was already hungry and asking for food;  he’s usually very patient but the delicious smell of the roasted chillies, chicken and cheese  is driving him crazy I guess.  I can’t blame him, I too can’t wait to eat these chile enchiladas. 

The green chiles that I used is what we call siling haba or finger chiles, I used only 6 ounces because it’s quite hot ( the bunch I have  were really hot, sometimes I get” lame “green chillies; I’m lucky that I bought good ones this time) but after roasting them,

I got this much only and that’s including the seeds…I’ve no choice but to include the seeds because there’s barely anything left of the chiles, I was worried it won’t be hot enough so I added habanero hot sauce, just one tablespoon to the sauce..it turned out EXTREMELY HOT..yummy-HOT! ;)

I made my own flour tortilla ( I couldn’t find masa harina), see recipe here if you want to make your own too. Put some chicken and cheese on a tortilla and roll..

Lay the burritos seam side down on a baking dish with half the sauce in it, then pour remaing sauce on top..

sprinkle cheese on top ( I used combination of cheddar, quickmelt and mozarella cheeses)

Bake until cheese bubbles

and serve… yum-yum!

My husband and I adore this dish, the kids love  it too but asked me to make it a lot less hot next time so they can have some of the sauce too, lol.   

GREEN CHILE AND GRILLED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Ingredients

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) 24 ounces 678 grams - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely. Other green chiles (NOT bell peppers) could probably be substituted but be conscious of heat and size!)
7-8 ounces tomatillos or tomatoes, green or red
4 cups Chicken broth (32 ounces/920 grams)
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)
Hot sauce, your favorite, optional
2 Boneless chicken breasts or chicken thigh fillet
3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)
Kosher salt and pepper
8 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps or make your own)
6 ounces grated Monterey Jack, 170 grams (other cheeses (cheddar, pepper jack, Mexican cheeses) can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling)
Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled, optional

Directions:

Roasting Fresh Chiles

1. Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.

2. Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.

3. As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.

4. Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.

5. DO NOT RINSE!

Green Chile Sauce

1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft.

2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor.

3. Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.

6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

Green Chiles and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Coat the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4-5 minutes a side for boneless chicken breasts.  Cool and then slice into thin strips or shred.

In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.  Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most). Drain on paper towels. Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done. (I skipped this part since I made my own tortilla at the same time )

Instead of stacking the tortillas, I rolled them so it’ll fit in my baking dish.

Pour half of the green chile sauce in a 9×13 baking dish; reserve the half for topping.  I made 8 tortilla so I divided the grilled chicken and half of the cheeses into 8 portions.  Lay tortilla wrap on a work surface, put chicken and grated cheese; roll and  put on the baking dish with sauce seam side down.  Repeat with the remaining tortilla;  when done pour the other half of the sauce over then top with the remaining cheese.  Bake until the cheese becomes bubbly.  Serve hot. 

Please drop by the Daring Kitchen to see other Daring Cooks’ delicious Green Chile Enchiladas

♥ Thanks for reading..have a nice day! ♥

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• Pork Chile Verde Mon 30 Nov 2009
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