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Prep time
1 hour
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Cook time
40 minutes
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Serves
8 or 10
Author Notes
Frank's five children are all great friends of mine. A Southern Californian and a nurseryman, a great cook, and an all around entertaining patriarch, Frank had a way with food that is admirable - simple but good. His daughter, Dot, taught me this recipe, to which I have added chicken and a little extra kick to the enchilada sauce. I was inspired to submit it after a Hotline question summoned a call for enchilada recipes. Frank made me the first enchiladas I ever ate. —Bevi
Ingredients
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2
chicken breasts - skin on
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salt and pepper to taste
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Olive oil for baking the chicken
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17 ounces
tub Fage yogurt - your choice of % of fat
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1/2 pint
sour cream
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half bunch
of scallions, chopped, including green ends
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4 cups
grated Monterrey Jack cheese
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3
cans Hatch Tex-Mex Enchilada Sauce
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1/2 cup
Ancho Pepper Sauce or jarred Mole sauce
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24
white corn tortillas
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1
Pyrex baking dish, 9'x13'
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1
smaller baking dish for additional filled enchiladas
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optional: instead of ancho pepper sauce or mole sauce, 2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/2 cup coffee
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optional: 1/2 diced medium large onion, sauteed
Directions
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Heat oven to 350 degrees while you prepare the enchiladas.
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Bake the chicken: Place chicken in a small baking dish, and sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, and you do not have to turn the breasts. Take out of oven and allow to cool. Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees.
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Place 3 cups of the cheese and the yogurt and sour cream in a bowl with the scallions. Stir until blended. Peel the skin off the chicken breasts and shred the cooled chicken using a fork - do not cut the chicken into pieces. Add to the cheese and yogurt mixture and set aside while you prepare the tortillas. NOTE: You can make both vegetarian and chicken enchiladas in separate pans by setting aside 1/3 of the yogurt, scallion and cheese mixture to make some enchiladas meatless.
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Pour the enchilada sauce and the ancho pepper or mole sauce in a large bowl and stir until the sauces are blended. Set aside. NOTE: An optional method is to add the cocoa powder and coffee to a sautéed diced onion. Cook, stirring for 3 minutes and add to the enchilada sauce.
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Place a 10" cast iron pan over medium heat until the air above it is almost waving. Do NOT use oil. Place a tortilla in the pan, and heat until the edges brown slightly - maybe 20 seconds. Flip the tortilla and cook on the second side until the tortilla "puffs" a little. Immediately plunge the tortilla into the sauce, and place in a 9"x13" Pyrex baking dish that has been lined with 3 TBS of enchilada sauce.
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Working inside the baking dish, add about 2 TBS. of the chicken filling on the tortilla, and roll it up. Try to work an assembly line, with a tortilla heating in the pan while you plunge another one in sauce and fill it. Stuff by hook or by crook 15 filled enchiladas in the baking dish. Follow up by using an additional baking dish to fit in the remaining filled enchiladas.
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Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. With a spatula, press the sauce into the crevices between the enchiladas. Cover the pans with aluminum foil to bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, and then sprinkle the top of the dish with the remaining cheese.
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Continue to bake in the middle of the oven until the cheese is bubbly and slightly browned. Allow the enchies to sit for about 10 minutes before you serve. They are much better on Day 2.
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NB - Please note that this dish can be entirely vegetarian without the chicken. That was Frank's original recipe.
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