Tuesday, February 23, 2010

If you eat weird things, now is the time to confess

Recently I got to thinking about all the meals my mom made when Emily and I were younger that we haven't had in a while, so last night I made my mom dig up her recipe for chicken enchiladas. And they are every bit as delicious as I remembered. They're not fancy, and if you happen to be some sort of enchilada snob you probably wouldn't concede that they're enchiladas, but oh man. I'm sharing the recipe because it's easy and we loved them as kids and we were horifically picky eaters.

10(ish) soft tortilla shells
1+ lb chicken, cubed or shredded
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8-oz tub sour cream
2 cups shredded mexican cheese
1/2 cup pureed salsa

Now I'm not sure if pureeing the salsa is an integral step, or if my poor mama did that because otherwise her children (and husband) would be like, "ew, what are these green chunks? ::gag::" It's up to you, but I didn't like chunky salsa then and I don't like it now, so we pureed it. Also the recipe calls for just 1 pound of chicken, but we actually used about 1.5 pounds, cubed, and could only stretch it to fit 9 tortilla shells. And even then they were a little skimpy, so I think in the future I'll use 2 whole pounds, and I'll shred it rather than cube it.

So what you do is cook the chicken, and while it's cooking mix together the cream of chicken, sour cream, salsa, and half of the cheese (that's 1 cup). Add the seasonings to the chicken once it's cooked (probably fine to do that at any point), then add a third of the sauce to the chicken. Coat a 9x13 (or whatever dish) in half of the REMAINING sauce, then spoon the chicken mixture into tortilla shells and roll 'em up like enchiladas, lining them up in the pan as you go. Once you've got 'em all situated, pour the last of the sauce over the top and cover it with the other 1 cup of cheese. Then bake it at 350ยบ for 30 minutes.

You see what I mean about it not being complicated, or complex in flavors. But it's very good, if you happen to like casserole-type chicken dishes. I don't know why I feel the need to apologize for the dish. If you don't like the sound of it, just don't make it! And also, don't tell me, because what is worse than when people are grossed out by you?

Remind me to tell you about how I also ate peanut butter and cheese sandwiches when I was little.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmmm...yummy!

I have a super easy enchilada recipe that uses canned chicken and freezes well I plan to make and freeze for after the bambino comes. That one includes rice, but it is still so, soo yummy.

I'm Erin. said...

Sounds like something I'd enjoy. Only Josh is afraid of sour cream so I'd have to sneak it past him.
Can you definitely tell it's got sour cream in it?

Sunk Costs said...

Erin, I don't think it's easy to tell there's sour cream since the salsa and cream of chicken and cheese are all stronger flavors and textures, but if he's prone to suspicion, here's a page of possible substitues:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodequivalents/a/sourcreamequivs.htm

Erin said...

Sounds delicious! I will definitely be making that one.

Also? I hate chunky salsa too, and every roommate I've ever had has thought I'm weird for pureeing it.

We've only recently hit the point where when I say "I want chips and salsa", Kevin pulls out the blender without question.