Marc’s Grandma’s Chicken Enchiladas

Several years ago, my friend Marc and I decided to get together and cook one night. He brought his Grandma’s enchilada recipe and I guided us through the recipe. Now, full disclosure, the recipe she sent with him is actually courtesy of Tyler Florence and you can find it on the Food Network website. However, it’s just so much more romantic to attribute a recipe to someone’s grandma whenever possible. If I recall correctly, I think Marc said that his grandma makes her own tortillas, which is a feat I have not yet attempted.

I was so happy with this recipe, though, that since then I’ve pretty much adopted it as my own. It has become part of my regular entertaining repertoire and I have made it many times over for friends. I last made it for my Book Club when I hosted a couple of months ago. Ever since I first made it for a Girl’s Night dinner, my friend Alyson will occasionally drops hints as to when I’ll be making enchiladas again. (Pretty much the best compliment a chef can get!) Alyson, Jenny and I each contributed a course to this dinner, and the arrangement was so successful that it lead to our forming the Supper Club I’ve so often alluded to.

This is another great dish for feeding a group. You can make the filling ahead of time, giving yourself a little breathing room before your guests arrive. I would even recommend making it the day before, because it does take a little bit of time and also allows all the flavors to blend. It is also far more healthy than it tastes. The filling is all vegetables and chicken. The cheese topping is really the only potentially unhealthy factor in the recipe; and you can easily moderate that to fit your needs.

Here is another recipe where I really don’t usually change a whole lot, but it’s also very easy to make simple and subtle changes to add your own signature. I occasionally add different vegetables, depending on what I have lying around. I like peppers and will tend have extras lying around, so those often make it in. Similarly, I’ve used this as a vehicle to experiment with interesting looking chiles I found at the farmer’s market. Olives are good, but you can always serve these on the side if you’re worried others won’t care for them. As always, I use more garlic than called for and I play around with the spices – smoked paprika really compliments the other flavors quite well. G prefers flour to corn tortillas, so I often swap those in. This dish is also nice in that it also allows everyone else eating a chance to customize their own plate bit if you serve it with a variety of toppings on the side.

The sauce is another great way to vary this recipe. Try green, red, mole, hot, or mild. Whatever you chose, I recommend having extra on-hand as sometimes those tortillas can soak up more than you’d think. You want to have enough to pour on top before adding the cheese and putting it all in the oven, plus a little more on the side just in case they dry out more than you’d like in the oven.

On the whole this is not a challenging recipe. Let’s be honest, making the filling basically consists of cooking up some chicken and throwing a bunch of veggies in a pot to stew. It does, however, require a good amount of time. It’s always best to cook the chicken in the same skillet as you will use to cook the vegetables, but if do you need to shave off a little time, I have cooked the chicken in one pan while simultaneously cooking the vegetables in another pan. If possible though, save those pan juices to add flavor to the veggie mixture.

I can see that the number of steps might be intimidating, but it really shouldn’t be. No step is at all difficult. Plus, making the enchiladas is a wonderfully tactile experience. I find shredding the chicken and then stuffing and rolling the enchiladas by hand to be extremely satisfying. I find it gives me an extra feeling of connection to the food. The great thing is that if the tortillas start to tear a little bit here and there, it doesn't really matter all much because they're going to get slathered in more sauce and cheese.

Here is a step by step picture guide of filling and rolling enchiladas:
(ok, ok it's really just an excuse to use more of G's pictures)

Ultimately, you just can’t get around that they're absolutely decadent to eat. MMMMMMMM!!!