A Taste of the World: Enchiladas

Last Thursday marked the 200 year anniversary of Mexico's independence, providing my inspiration for this weeks recipe: Enchiladas. "El Grito", literally translated "The Cry" celebrates Mexico's independence from Spain, and 100 years of a revolution that overthrew dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910.

I wanted this recipe to be as traditional as possible, so I asked the Assistant Head Chef at Taste (where I work), Roberto Flores, for a recommendation. Flores is from Mexico, and assured me that if I followed this recipe well, my enchiladas would be as close to authentic as they could be.

To start, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and boiled the chicken with some chopped garlic and onion. I added chicken flavored bouillon to the pot to make chicken broth. Simultaneously I boiled all of the ingredients for the sauce in a separate pot, and added more bouillon to that mix for flavor.

After the chicken cooked and the vegetables became soft, I strained each. While the chicken cooled I blended the ingredients to make the sauce. If you want to mimic the professionals, use a food processor. Unfortunately I don't own one, so I used a blender.

Considering I didn't have a large enough pan to fry the tortillas in, I almost burnt myself by just using the flame from the stove to heat and soften them. Although dangerous, this is a great technique for tortillas.

After straining the chicken I placed some in each of the tortillas and folded them like burritos, then placed them in an oven-safe deep dish.

Lastly, I poured the sauce over them, sprinkled cheese on top, and let them bake in the oven for roughly 10 minutes (until the cheese had melted).

Once your enchiladas are ready to serve, you can add a lot of things to them such as avocado, olives, or lettuce, and enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 onions

2 tsp chicken flavor bouillon

1 lb cherry tomatoes

2 chilies (for extra spiciness)

3 jalapenos

large tortillas

cheese of choice

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350

Boil chicken in small pot with 2 tsp bouillon, 2 cloves of chopper garlic and 1/2 onion chopped

Boil tomatoes, 2 cloves chopped garlic, one chopped onion, salt, pepper, chilies and jalapenos (add chicken broth for flavor)

Strain contents of both pots

Blend enchilada sauce ingredients

Shred chicken

Fry/heat tortillas

Wrap chicken in tortillas and put in oven safe pan

Pour sauce on top and sprinkle cheese

Put in oven for 5-10 minutes (until cheese melts) and serve

OpinionadviserSeptember 20, 2010Comment