Daring Cooks' Stacked GREEN Enchiladas with Spinach Sauce

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.

This month, Barbara and Bunnee challenged us to make our own enchiladas and sauce. The original recipe they shared was a homemade green sauce using chiles and tomatillos. But due to the lack of vegetable variety in POZ, i had to look for other alternatives. I didn't want to stray too far from the original recipe so after much thought, i decided to stay "GREEN" and made Enchiladas with spinach sauce. It's also extremely hard to find flat corn tortillas here so i made my own wheat tortillas to stack. I also replaced chicken breasts with pork since it was the day before labor day and the grocery store was basically empty by the time i got there. Sheesh, talk about bad luck with ingredients this month! So even though my Green Enchilada is full of substitutions and using spinach makes it a completely different dish... at least i got the color right, muahaha!

These enchiladas were amazing. The stacked tortillas and cheese almost makes it a Mexican lasagna. It was the perfect last-meal before i started my 1 week detox diet-- it's full of carbs, meat, and cheese! If it wasn't for a meal as gratifying as this, i don't think my diet would've lasted 2 days. So thank-you Barbara & Bunnee, I've reached new horizons with my resourcefulness this month and this challenge has indirectly helped me loose a few pounds. Doesn't get any better than that!

Stacked GREEN Enchiladas with Spinach Sauce

adapted from Epicurious.com

INGREDIENTS:

• SPINACH SAUCE:
• 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 cup light cream (12%) or half-and-half
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 green onions, minced
• 200 grams fresh green chilies
  (roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely)
• 1 3/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• Salt & pepper, to taste.
  
  
• ENCHILADAS:
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
  (i used 500 grams pork)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  (use more as needed)
• 12 6-inch corn tortillas
  (i made my own wheat tortillas and only used 6)
• 2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese
  (i used hollander cheese)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS:

Spinach Sauce:

1. Cook spinach according to package instructions. Drain well. Set aside.
2. Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add flour and stir mixture for 2 minutes; do not brown.
3. Gradually whisk in whipping cream and milk. Simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.
4. Stir in spinach, cilantro, green onion, chilies, cumin, coriander and red pepper [picture 1].
5. Puree in batches in processor until almost smooth (optional, i skipped this step).
6. Season with salt and pepper.
   Tip: if your sauce doesn't thicken up, dissolve some starch with cold water and slowly pour into the sauce while mixing constantly.
   

Enchiladas:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Sautee the chicken (or pork) until just cooked through. Cool and set aside [picture 2].
3. 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 tortillas are done.
4. In a baking dish, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
5. Lay tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup of sauce over the tortillas. Divide half the chicken among the first layer of tortillas, top with some sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
6. Stack another layer of tortillas, top with the rest of the chicken, more sauce and another third of the cheese [picture 3].
7. Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese [picture 4].
8. Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
9. To serve, spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

Stacked Enchiladas

with Spinach Sauce

Tortillas + Chicken Quesadillas

I have one more final to go and I'll be done! (that's if I pass it today) But yea, after that I'll have even more time on my hands... all the way till June 18th, where I'm the last group to start Pediatrics. I'm not that bummed about being the last group to finish though. I don't have much summer plans and most of my friends are either staying in the states or... they live in Taichung or Taipei :( dang it. And since JLo also lives in Taipei, i wont be seeing him much over the summer... so i might as well stay here and spend more time with him before i start our summer long-distance relationship. How sad.

Now back to food: I'm here posting up the (so-far) best tortilla recipe that i've found online: Texas Flour Tortillas from homesicktexan. After trying many different recipes, this version makes the softest ones that actually STAY soft without drying or cracking up. They're thick, fluffy, and soft-- perfect for burritos, fajitas, enchiladas, or..... Quesadillas! Yep, which brings me to the second recipe of the day: Chicken Quesadillas. These are like the easiest things to make and they're quite filling too. If you're too lazy to cook chicken, a simple bean+cheese tortilla will also do. So here, no need to spend the extra money (7 ridiculous zlotys in Poland) when you can make double the amount with what, a maximum of 2 zloty worth of supplies?

Texas Flour Tortillas
from Homesick Texan
makes 8 tortillas

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup warm/hot milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix flour, baking poswer, and salt together.
2. Add the oil and warm milk.
3. Knead for 2 minutes. The dough should be firm and elastic.
4. Cover dough in a bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes.
5. Seperate into 8 euqal pieces and rooll ou tthe tortilla until very thin.
6. Heat oil in pan and cook until it starts bubbling.

Chicken Quesadillas
INGREDIENTS:

• 4 tortillas
• 1 cup refried beans (or mash 1 can of kidney beans)
  - Heat/steam the beans until soft and mash.
  - Season mashed beans with salt and pepper.
• 1 cooked chicken breast, cut into thin slices or shredded
  - Season chicken breast with 3 teaspoons cumin, salt & pepper.
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup onions

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat tortilla until it bubbles.
2. Layer half of the tortilla with refried beans, onions, tomatoes, chicken, and sprinkle with cheese.
3. Cover the tortilla and heat until cheese has melted.

Chicken Quesadillas

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

If you ask me what my favorite cuisines are, i would have to say 1) Korean 2)Mexican (of course excluding Taiwanese/Chinese food which are unconquerable). I almost never make anything Korean cuz it just feels like all their dishes are harder to make and ingredients are harder to find...especially in Poland. But when it comes to Mexican food, its a whole different story; no matter how hard you try to screw it up, it always turns out great. As long as you have the right ingredients, things rarely go wrong.

The Mexican dish that I most often make would probably be the Mexican Chicken Casserole that I've learned from my Home Economics/Food Management class in High school. That recipe is definitely a keeper. My parents, who never has one nice thing to say about western food, would actually ask me when i have time to make it for them... If my parents have nice things to say about that casserole, then believe me, you would too. But enough about that, I'll leave it for another post. I just thought I'd mention it cuz these enchiladas are quite similar to the Mexican chicken casserole. Only difference would probably be the sour cream and the enchilada part. The only downside is that it's quite time-consuming. Especially if you decide to make your own salsa and tortillas... which is what i did. Hahaha, 自找麻煩.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
derived from allrecipes.com & some other site that i forgot

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 chicken breasts, cooked
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup of salsa
• 1 cup of cheese
• 3/4 cup of sour cream
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 8 flour tortillas
  SOUR CREAM MIXTURE
• 3/4 cup of salsa
• 1/2 cup of yogurt
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped spring onions
• 1/2 cup of cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine chicken, onion, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and cumin.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Spoon chicken mixture on all 8 tortillas.
4. Wrap tortillas and place them in a large baking pan.
5. Combine salsa, yogurt, sour cream, and spring onions in another bowl. Season.
6. Pour sauce over tortillas and top with cheese.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Things You'll Need:

Tortillas, Salsa, Sour Cream
(don't know if that is sour cream in polish, but sure tastes like it!)

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas