Cinco de Mayo, Part 3:
How exciting! A mere 16 days after Cinco de Mayo, I'm finally finishing my posting about my amazing Mexican meal! This last post revolves around the chicken enchiladas I made for myself. As you all may recall from Cinco de Mayo, Part 1, my husband is not a fan of large chunks of vegetables in his meals (large chunks of meat? no problemo -- how 'bout that Spanish??) =] So anyway, the chicken enchiladas were for me, because they had both large chunks of veggies and green chiles, something Adam wouldn't knowingly eat if he was starving to death. So, as with the rest of my meal, I purchased ingredients for the enchiladas and hurried home to start cooking. And thus began a series of mistakes that caused dinner to be delayed until 8 p.m. For starters, I purchased large chicken breasts -- not an issue. The fact that I thought they were BONELESS, split chicken breasts when in fact I had grabbed a package of skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts --definitely an issue. Needless to say, this caused a plethora of problems:
1. Bone-in chicken breasts cook really slowly. Much slower than say, the rest of the meal.
2. Bone-in chicken breasts means that at some point, I have to remove the bones in order to shred the chicken.
3. Getting stabbed with a chicken bone while doing the afrementioned shredding does not improve one's overall mood...especially well into one's third hour of standing over a hot stove.
4. Shredding chicken breasts and suddenly realizing that the inside was actually NOT completely cooked delays dinner even more
5. Shredding partially cooked chicken breasts really decreases the likelihood that I'll want to eat them eventually, cooked or not.
6. Finding a way to finish cooking partially cooked shredded chicken breasts means that I will need to get out and get dirty every pot, pan, bowl, and utensil that I own.
7. Getting out all the aforementioned equipment means that the task of cleaning up after dinner was akin to Hercules having to clean the Aegean Stables, without the benefit of having god-like powers and simply redirecting a river.
Anyway, in spite of many (and I do mean MANY) obstacles, this meal was really tasty and turned out pretty well in the end. I can also happily report that I did not contract salmonella from the chicken bone stab wound. I can also report that the chicken was (in the end) completely cooked and very tender and juicy. Still...lesson learned.
So here's the recipe. I highly recommend it. I also highly recomment carefully reading the packaging before purchasing chicken breasts.
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
12 small chile peppers, diced (optional)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 pint heavy cream (I used half and half since I had some in the fridge)
6 (6 inch) corn tortillas
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken and onions until chicken is evenly brown. Stir in diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, stewed tomatoes, chile peppers, soup and broth. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover skillet, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
Remove chicken from skillet, and shred when cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, allow skillet mixture to simmer and reduce to about 2 1/4 cups. In a medium bowl, combine shredded chicken and about 1/4 cup skillet mixture (just enough to make a paste like mixture). Mix together with half the chopped green onions.
In a second skillet, heat cream over low heat, being careful not to boil. Dip tortillas in the warm cream to soften and coat. Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla. Top chicken mixture with half the shredded cheese, and roll up tortillas. Place rolled tortillas in a 9x13 inch baking dish, seam side down, and pour remaining 2 cups of skillet mixture over the enchiladas. Cover with remaining shredded cheese, and sprinkle remaining chopped green onion over cheese. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbling.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Let's Rock the Guac
Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Posting, Part 2:
At this rate, I'll be done posting about my Cinco de Mayo meal by next May 5th! So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I made beef enchiladas with homemade sauce for my husband on Cinco de Mayo. For myself, I made chicken enchiladas (in my post, Cinco de Mayo, Part 3), but the highlight of the enchiladas was my homemade guacamole. I had never made guacamole before, so I printed several different recipes, read each, and then created my own. I loved it and have already made it again to eat at lunch this week. I love that something so delicious is also so healthful -- avocadoes, like pomegranates, mangoes, and cranberries, are considered a super-fruit.
Unfortunately, I don't have much of a guacamole recipe. It's more of a series of guidelines that you can adapt to suit your own needs. I would argue that this is how most recipes should be written so that we can all be creative with our food and so that it will suit our tastes. Anyway, here's how it went down.
I extracted the green stuff from 3 avocadoes (neat trick alert: after sticking a knife into the pod-thing in the middle of the green stuff, push down on it from both sides of the knife to remove it) and first tried to mash it with a fork. Ummmm...yeah. Cut to me, three minutes later dumping the mess into the food processor and hitting pulse. (I may have also yelled, "Take that, 'cado!" but we don't need to talk about that.) =] Anyway, after I had achieved *mostly* smooth avocado, I poured in some lemon juice, and about a quarter of a jar of salsa (I prefer Pace Chunky Mild, but to each his own). I mixed that it together and added a bit of salt and a lot of ground black pepper. Side note: I work with a guy who thinks pepper should be put in everything, including "the water that comes out of the tap." He's a little odd, but nice. =] Anyway, after all that was mixed together I dumped it all into a bowl and stirred in anoth quarter cup of the salsa (I love chunky stuff!) and then some finely chopped red pepper. Delish!!
At this rate, I'll be done posting about my Cinco de Mayo meal by next May 5th! So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I made beef enchiladas with homemade sauce for my husband on Cinco de Mayo. For myself, I made chicken enchiladas (in my post, Cinco de Mayo, Part 3), but the highlight of the enchiladas was my homemade guacamole. I had never made guacamole before, so I printed several different recipes, read each, and then created my own. I loved it and have already made it again to eat at lunch this week. I love that something so delicious is also so healthful -- avocadoes, like pomegranates, mangoes, and cranberries, are considered a super-fruit.
Unfortunately, I don't have much of a guacamole recipe. It's more of a series of guidelines that you can adapt to suit your own needs. I would argue that this is how most recipes should be written so that we can all be creative with our food and so that it will suit our tastes. Anyway, here's how it went down.
I extracted the green stuff from 3 avocadoes (neat trick alert: after sticking a knife into the pod-thing in the middle of the green stuff, push down on it from both sides of the knife to remove it) and first tried to mash it with a fork. Ummmm...yeah. Cut to me, three minutes later dumping the mess into the food processor and hitting pulse. (I may have also yelled, "Take that, 'cado!" but we don't need to talk about that.) =] Anyway, after I had achieved *mostly* smooth avocado, I poured in some lemon juice, and about a quarter of a jar of salsa (I prefer Pace Chunky Mild, but to each his own). I mixed that it together and added a bit of salt and a lot of ground black pepper. Side note: I work with a guy who thinks pepper should be put in everything, including "the water that comes out of the tap." He's a little odd, but nice. =] Anyway, after all that was mixed together I dumped it all into a bowl and stirred in anoth quarter cup of the salsa (I love chunky stuff!) and then some finely chopped red pepper. Delish!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Beef Enchiladas, Ole!
Have you ever heard the phrase, "Too much of a good thing...is wonderful."? I seem to have taken it to heart recently in my own kitchen. My husband and I are both big fans of Mexican food. He espcially enjoys enchiladas, and so for several months I have been scouring my favorite food sites for the perfect enchilada recipe to surprise him with. There are many requirements:
1. They must be beef enchiladas.
2. They must be covered in red sauce (none of that salsa verde crap for him!).
3. They must not contain larger chunks of vegetables (although large chunks of beef are okay).
4. They should be very cheesy in addition to the beef (well, duh, isn't that what everyone wants in an enchilada???).
And then, right around Cinco de Mayo (What fabulous luck -- finding Mexian food recipes around a Mexican holiday! Man did I feel blonde after that...=] ) I found the perfect recipe. Even better, I found a recipe for homemade red sauce to layer with the beef enchiladas. Also, anything of the chunky vegetable persuasion could be pureed until you'd never know it was there...perfect.
So last Monday (Cinco de Mayo, if any of you are keeping track), I left school and went to the store to get ingredients for not one, but two kinds of enchiladas (I made chicken ones for myself, but we'll discuss that in another post). Needless to say, when picking up items for several different recipes, I sit down first and try to organize my shopping list so that I'm not dashing back and forth across the store every 5 seconds. Also, needless to say, I screwed up the list on Monday (otherwise, why would I have brought this up). And so I dashed up and down and back and forth. It was pathetic. And exhausting. And when I got home, I still had to cook. (Insert dirty words here.)
According to my calculations (and frantic re-reading of the recipe), I would need to begin with the red sauce, since it was recommended that it simmer for 2-3 hours!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, right! I was practically fainting with hunger then. How ridiculous. (Cut to me, three hours later, finally assembling the damned enchiladas and shoving them in the oven.)
Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
5 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I used sweet basil)
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 cup chunky salsa, pureed (I actually used about a 1/2 cup)
1 6oz. can of tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
Directions:
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the minced onion, oregano, chili powder, basil, pepper, salt, cumin, parsley, salsa, and tomato paste.
Mix together and then stir in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes, although the acutal recipe recommended simmering for hours, adding more chicken broth as needed.
Once I had the sauce simmering nicely, I started on the second half of this dish: the actual enchiladas. These were actually very easy to put together (but let's not confuse easy with quick!).
Below is the recipe I used. All changes made are listed in parentheses.
Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients:
2 lbs. lean ground beef (I chose to use ground chuck, but may try it with ground sirloin in the future)
1 large chopped onion (finely minced...microscopically minced, in fact)
1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
Add the following to taste: cumin, chili powder, pepper, dried parsley
12 (8-inch) flour tortillas
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
8 oz. shredded colby jack cheese (I used Kraft Mexican cheese)
**The recipe called for two 19 oz. cans of enchilada sauce, but as I said, I made my own).
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a heavy saucepan or skillet, brown the ground beef and onions, stirring often. Season the beef with the garlic salt, cumin, chili powder, pepper, nad dried parsley and set aside (at this point I dump the meat into a fine mesh colander and let most of the grease drain out). In a skillet, fry the tortillas in the begetable oil (this is super important!! For future reference, I would fry them for 15-20 seconds each...mine were still a little soggy) =[
Pat the tortillas dry and set aside. Mix about a 1/3 of the enchilada sauce into the beef and then spoon some of the beef mixture into each tortilla. Top with colby jack cheese and roll tightly, laying in a 9x13 Pyrex. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top and cover in more colby jack cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and browned.
Also, I doubled the sauce recipe since my husband likes more sauce on enchiladas than I do, so he could spoon more onto each serving. These were very good, but time-consuming, so I probably make them again, just not on a school night! =]
1. They must be beef enchiladas.
2. They must be covered in red sauce (none of that salsa verde crap for him!).
3. They must not contain larger chunks of vegetables (although large chunks of beef are okay).
4. They should be very cheesy in addition to the beef (well, duh, isn't that what everyone wants in an enchilada???).
And then, right around Cinco de Mayo (What fabulous luck -- finding Mexian food recipes around a Mexican holiday! Man did I feel blonde after that...=] ) I found the perfect recipe. Even better, I found a recipe for homemade red sauce to layer with the beef enchiladas. Also, anything of the chunky vegetable persuasion could be pureed until you'd never know it was there...perfect.
So last Monday (Cinco de Mayo, if any of you are keeping track), I left school and went to the store to get ingredients for not one, but two kinds of enchiladas (I made chicken ones for myself, but we'll discuss that in another post). Needless to say, when picking up items for several different recipes, I sit down first and try to organize my shopping list so that I'm not dashing back and forth across the store every 5 seconds. Also, needless to say, I screwed up the list on Monday (otherwise, why would I have brought this up). And so I dashed up and down and back and forth. It was pathetic. And exhausting. And when I got home, I still had to cook. (Insert dirty words here.)
According to my calculations (and frantic re-reading of the recipe), I would need to begin with the red sauce, since it was recommended that it simmer for 2-3 hours!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, right! I was practically fainting with hunger then. How ridiculous. (Cut to me, three hours later, finally assembling the damned enchiladas and shoving them in the oven.)
Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
5 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I used sweet basil)
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 cup chunky salsa, pureed (I actually used about a 1/2 cup)
1 6oz. can of tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
Directions:
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the minced onion, oregano, chili powder, basil, pepper, salt, cumin, parsley, salsa, and tomato paste.
Mix together and then stir in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes, although the acutal recipe recommended simmering for hours, adding more chicken broth as needed.
Once I had the sauce simmering nicely, I started on the second half of this dish: the actual enchiladas. These were actually very easy to put together (but let's not confuse easy with quick!).
Below is the recipe I used. All changes made are listed in parentheses.
Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients:
2 lbs. lean ground beef (I chose to use ground chuck, but may try it with ground sirloin in the future)
1 large chopped onion (finely minced...microscopically minced, in fact)
1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
Add the following to taste: cumin, chili powder, pepper, dried parsley
12 (8-inch) flour tortillas
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
8 oz. shredded colby jack cheese (I used Kraft Mexican cheese)
**The recipe called for two 19 oz. cans of enchilada sauce, but as I said, I made my own).
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a heavy saucepan or skillet, brown the ground beef and onions, stirring often. Season the beef with the garlic salt, cumin, chili powder, pepper, nad dried parsley and set aside (at this point I dump the meat into a fine mesh colander and let most of the grease drain out). In a skillet, fry the tortillas in the begetable oil (this is super important!! For future reference, I would fry them for 15-20 seconds each...mine were still a little soggy) =[
Pat the tortillas dry and set aside. Mix about a 1/3 of the enchilada sauce into the beef and then spoon some of the beef mixture into each tortilla. Top with colby jack cheese and roll tightly, laying in a 9x13 Pyrex. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top and cover in more colby jack cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and browned.
Also, I doubled the sauce recipe since my husband likes more sauce on enchiladas than I do, so he could spoon more onto each serving. These were very good, but time-consuming, so I probably make them again, just not on a school night! =]
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