Mexican signature dish: Chicken Enchilada Bites with home-made sauce!

The best thing about having a food blog is that you are constantly looking for new recipes that you want to try out next!

It is obvious that you will be trying out recipes that you and your family enjoy the most. For instance, I was recently obsessed with trying out Italian recipes, especially pasta and various sauces, because I myself love pastas so so much. The red sauce, the white sauce, the pestos, the meatballs.. I wanted to learn it all. I had some pretty disastrous cooking sessions along the way, where my white sauce got lumpy or pasta wasn’t cooked enough. Now, if it weren’t for the motivation of putting the recipes on my blog, I would have certainly given up after these depressing attempts, but I wanted to see my favorites on my own blog so I kept on trying till I learnt the tricks.  As they say- try try till you succeed! and I did.

So, after my phase of Italian food-making endeavors, it was now time for a change in palette. So….what do I love eating the most, when we are at the mall?? Easy. Nachos, tacos, fajitas and enchiladas. WE ARE GOING MEXICAN, AMIGOS!

So, Mexican food. What’s not to like? The veggies, the sauces, the breads….I would take a plateful of tacos and fajitas from a cart in the park, over a three course meal at a fine-dining restaurant any living day. Enchiladas are everyone’s particular favorite! Baked tortillas full of crunchy veggies and yummy sauces….mmmmm! You can stuff it with whatever you have lying n your refrigerator and it is so easy to put together and serve.

One thing that I am not too keen about, be it any kind of cuisine (including Indian), are the store-bought sauces. I know that they work great for so many people but personally, I do not like to use them. So, if I was to make enchiladas at home, it would have to be the long route.

The sauce turned out great and I even froze some to use later in another dish. The traditional recipe calls for the use of flour in the sauce but I used the cornflour and water mixture instead, to thicken up my sauce. You can go either way. Also, I will not recommend pouring your sauce in the bottom of the baking dish before placing enchiladas on it. I think that sauce on the bottom, then inside the enchiladas and again on the top of your enchiladas is just too much. It will turn them soggy and wet. So, just pour some on the top of each enchilada and it should be enough!

I used tomato and basil wheat tortillas to make my enchiladas but you can use any type of tortillas of your choice. Hubby commented that the only thing that would have make my enchiladas even better was- if the tortillas were made from scratch. Sigh! We are such finicky people.

So, give this recipe a go and enjoy guys!

Ingredients-

For the sauce-

– 1 tin of chopped tomatoes or 5-6 fresh tomatoes, chopped

– 1 clove garlic, chopped

– 1 bayleaf

– 1 small onion, chopped

– 1 tbsn cornflour

– 1.5 cups vegetable stock

– 1 tsp Italian seasoning

– 1 tsp cumin powder

– 1 tsp red chilly powder

– ½ tsp garlic powder

– 1 teaspoon sugar

– 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

– 3 tbsn olive oil

– Salt to taste

For the filling-

– 1 boneless chicken breast, diced

– 1 clove of garlic, chopped

– ½ jalapeno, chopped

– 1 small onion, sliced

– ½ green bell pepper, sliced

– Some cooked red kidney beans or a small can of black beans

– 1 tsp red chilly powder

– A dash of soya sauce (optional)

– 2 tbsn olive oil

– Salt and pepper to taste

Other ingredients needed-

– 4 tortillas of your choice

– 1 cup grated mozzarella plus cheddar cheese

– Some fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Method-

– Let us make our sauce first! In a saucepan, heat your oil.

– Once hot, add the bay-leaf, chopped garlic and onions, Fry until the onion turns pink and translucent.

– Add the full can of tomatoes. Cover and cook till they get well done.

– Add the vegetable stock as well as all the seasonings. Let simmer on low heat for around 10 minutes.

– Meanwhile, prepare your cornflour mixture to thicken up the sauce. Combine the cornflour with ¼ cup of water in a cup and mix well. Add this slurry little by little to the sauce while stirring the latter continuously. Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 minutes. You will see that your sauce has thickened up beautifully. If it is still thin, add some more cornflour till you get the desired consistency.

– Switch off the flame and let your sauce cool. Pour your cooled sauce through a sieve to get rid of all the solid elements and make sure you squeeze out all of the liquid from the residue left in the sieve. The delicious and rich enchiladas sauce is ready!!

– Next, prepare the chicken filling! In a pan, heat some oil.

– Add the chopped garlic and jalapeno. Fry for a few seconds.

– Add the sliced onions and capsicum. Saute uncovered for around a minute, so that they are still crunchy.

– Add the diced chicken, along with salt and pepper. Cook till chicken is completely cooked through.

– Add the red chilly powder and a dash of soya sauce. Fry for around 1 minute, before switching off the flame.

– Set aside the filling till it gets cooled down completely.

– Let us assemble the enchiladas now! Pre-heat your oven at 180 degrees C.

– Lay out a tortilla, and spread two tablespoons of sauce over the surface of the tortilla.

– Take a spoonful of the chicken mixture and arrange it in a straight vertical line along the tortilla

– Add beans on the top of the chicken mixture,

– Finally, sprinkle the cheese on top.

– Roll up tortilla and place in a greased baking dish.

– Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

– Assemble the tortillas snugly side by side in a greased baking dish and pour around 2 tablespoons of enchilada sauce per tortilla, on the top of them.

– Top with the remaining shredded cheese.

– Cover with a foil and bake for 20 minutes and last 5-6 minutes uncovered or till the cheese gets browned.

– Cut each enchilada in three parts to get bite-sized pieces or simply let them be as they are.

– Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with sour cream or mayo. Enjoy!

Notes*

– You can prepare the chicken filling, any way you like. Just use your favorite dry chicken recipe! Also, If the filling seems too dry to you, you can also add a spoonful of your enchilada sauce to spice things up while cooking the stuffing!