Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

My husband loves Salsa Verde, also known as green sauce or tomatillo salsa. And even though I have not been blogging, I have been cooking. He loved this so much that we had it twice in one week.

As always, read the entire recipe before starting. This may seem like a great deal of work, but it isn’t. In fact, this is an easy recipe. You can follow my recipe exactly, or you can tweak it to your liking. Here are my suggestions for changes.

I find it easier to slice the chicken if it is still a little frozen. Not so frozen that it is still hard, but frozen enough that it holds it shape when you slice it. This makes it easier for you to ensure that the slices are the same size. Just make sure that you cook the chicken completely.

If you don’t want to make your own salsa (which I completely understand) just use your favorite. We like Frontera. But honestly, Old El Paso isn’t bad at all.

You can control the amount of heat in this recipe through the type of Ro-Tel and the type of cheese you use. Original Ro-Tel is a little spicy. You can use ‘mild’ if you don’t want any heat or ‘hot’ if you like more spice. I used Cabot Habanero cheese on top, because we love hot. You can use pepper jack for less heat or cheddar for none at all.

You can probably find Cotija cheese at your grocery store. It crumbles in chunks, like feta. However, it is milder than feta, but saltier. It doesn’t melt. You can use some Cotija crumbles on top of the enchiladas as a garnish and to add a different texture and a burst of salty goodness.

I served this with a side of refried black beans and Spanish rice. (I don’t make any money from this blog.)

Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Servings: 10 enchiladas
Time:  Prep: 15 minutes; Cooking:  30 minutes, Enchiladas in about 45 minutes
Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, measuring cups & spoons, a can opener, a large (10 in) skillet, tongs,  plates for prep, paper towels, 13 x 9 in glass baking dish.

 Ingredients:

• 1½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch strips
• ½ a small onion cut into strips (2-4 oz)
• ½ a small, diced bell pepper  (2-4 oz)
• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, cut into cubes
• 2 ½ cups of salsa verde -buy your favorite or make your own
• 1 can (10 oz) Ro-Tel tomatoes drained
• 1 package (10) 6-inch flour tortillas
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• Oil for the skillet
• Cooking spray
• Salt and pepper
• Optional for garnish: Sliced green onions, Cotija (white, crumbly Mexican cheese), sour cream, and cilantro.

1.  Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray the baking dish with cooking spray. Cut up the chicken, peppers and onions. Liberally salt the chicken. Dice the cream cheese. Drain the Ro-tel. Set everything aside
2.  Add a little oil to the skillet, sauté the onions and bell pepper over medium-high heat until they are to your liking. I usually like mine very crunchy but cook them longer for enchiladas. Place them on a plate. Do not wipe out the skillet. Add the chicken and sauté, flipping it over occasionally, until it is no longer pink in center. This should take about 7-8 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and return the turn the peppers to the pan. Stir in the cream cheese and the Ro-tel. Stir until the cream cheese is melted. Remove from the heat.
3. Add enough salsa verde to the glass pan to coat the bottom. This will take no more than 2-3 tablespoons.
4. Place the tortillas on a plate and cover them with a damp paper towel.  Heat these in the microwave for 30 seconds. Spoon 1/10^th of the chicken mixture onto a tortilla, roll it up, and place seam side down into the baking dish. Repeat until you have used up all of the filling. Pour the salsa verde over the enchiladas. Sprinkle them with cheese. Bake until the salsa is bubbling, and the cheese has melted. Ovens vary, but this usually takes me about 15-20 minutes. Make sure to monitor.  Let the dish stand for 5 minutes before serving.
5. To plate, place 2 enchiladas onto a dish. Top with sliced green onions, a little Cotija, sour cream, and a little cilantro.

Taco Skillet

Taco Skillet

Most of my recipes are simple, nothing complicated. I believe that most people just want to make something quick and tasty for dinner. That is what I try to provide. This Taco Skillet only requires one pan and is easy and kid friendly. Maybe next time I’ll do something fancy. Or maybe the time after that.

Here are the tweaks: We were out of elbow macaroni, so I used ditalini. It worked out fine. You can use any small tubular pasta. You can control the heat by the type of Ro-Tel that you choose. If you want no heat at all, try Ro-Tel Mild. Ro-Tel Original is a little spicy. Chipotle, Serrano, and the aptly named Hot are much spicier. I use 2 packets of taco seasoning because I like bold flavors. That is up to you. In order to save time, you can buy diced onions and peppers in the produce section. You can also buy them frozen. If you don’t eat red meat, you could substitute ground chicken or turkey.

Servings: 6-8
Time:  Prep: 10 minutes, Cook: 20 minutes; Dinner in 30ish minutes
Hardware:  Measuring spoons and cups, a cutting board and a knife, a deep skillet with a lid, a colander, a can opener, a wooden spoon

Ingredients: 

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 2 ounces (¼ cup) bell pepper
• 2 ounces (¼ cup) onion
• 8 ounces ( 1 cup) uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1 can (10 ounces) Ro-Tel Tomatoes & Green Chilies
• 1¼ cup water (maybe more)
• 1¼ cup milk
• 1 packet of taco seasoning or 2 tablespoons of your own
• 8 ounces (1 cup) shredded cheddar cheese
• Optional: taco sauce, hot sauce, sour cream, pickled jalapeños, chopped tomatoes, roasted bell peppers

1. Dice the onions and green peppers. Cook them in the skillet with the ground beef over medium high. Crumble the beef while it is cooking. When it is cooked through, drain the beef mixture.
2. Return the beef to the deep skillet. Add the pasta, the Ro-Tel (do not drain), water, milk and seasonings to the skillet. Stir. Make sure the pasta is submerged. You may need to add a little more water or milk. However, you are not making soup. You just want the liquid to completely cover the pasta.
3. Cover the skillet with the lid and bring to a low boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, stirring once or twice, just enough to keep everything from sticking.
4. When the pasta is tender, usually after 10-11 minutes, stir in the cheese and remove the skillet from the heat.
5. Serve warm with any toppings that you would regularly put on a taco. This is really good as leftovers!

Chicken Parm Quesadillas

Fusion cuisine combines contrasting culinary traditions from various regions into a single dish. So, I am completely taking liberties with the term when I combine an Italian American dish, Chicken Parmesan, with a Tex-Mex bastardization of a Mexican dish, cheese quesadilla, to get Chicken Parm Quesadilla. I don’t care if it is middle America, this mess was delicious!

You can make your own chicken tenders, your own marinara sauce and/or your own Italian Seasoning. Or you can do what I did-grab tenders from your grocery store’s deli, pick up a jar of Rao’s and make this delectable dinner with minimal effort.

You can offer your guests extra warm sauce for dipping. If you want to make the dish vegetarian, use frozen eggplant cutlets instead of chicken. I like Dominex for the same reason that I like Rao’s sauce, they both use all natural ingredients. If you use eggplant, follow the package directions for heating in a skillet. Then use my recipe to make Eggplant Parm Quesadillas. Add about 10 minutes to the cooking time.

 

Chicken Parm Quesadillas

Serves: 6 quesadillas (6-8 people probably)

Time:  Active time 10 minutes; Cook: 7 Minutes, quesadillas in 20 minutes

Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, measuring spoons and cups, a heavy skillet, paper towels, a silicone spatula, tongs, a sheet pan, and a pizza cutter (optional)

Ingredients:

• Butter (probably around ½ stick which is ¼ cup)
•  6-8-inch flour tortillas
• 1 ½ pounds prepared chicken tenders
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup of your favorite marinara sauce
• 6-½ teaspoons Italian seasoning

 1.      Slice the chicken tenders into bite sized pieces. Slice the fresh mozzarella into small chunks. Set aside.

2.      For each quesadilla, melt 2 teaspoons of butter over medium-high. When the butter is melted add a tortilla.

3.      Spread about 2 tablespoons or so of the marinara over the entire tortilla. Place a layer of cheese over the marinara. When the cheese is melty, put pieces of chicken on half the cheese. Sprinkle the entire quesadilla with Italian seasoning. Fold the side with just cheese over the chicken and mash down a little using the spatula If you need to you can use the tongs to push the filling back into the shell while mashing.

4.      You can keep the quesadillas warm on the sheet pan in the oven on the lowest setting while preparing the rest of the meal. Wipe out the pan between quesadillas.

5.      Use the pizza slicer to cut the quesadilla in to thirds. Serve warm.

Southwest Meatballs

My husband loves all the foods that go into the Southwestern flavor profile: cilantro, Mexican oregano, cumin ground chilis, fresh chilis, onions, garlic, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, lemons, limes and oranges. I often make a dish using a flavor profile rather than an actual recipe. So, it was with these Southwestern Meatballs. I grabbed the Southwestern ingredients I had on hand and went for it! Success!

I did write down every ingredient I used. I timed everything. Then I made them again following my recipe so that you could replicate it.

You can serve the Southwestern Meatballs alone as an appetizer or over rice as a meal. I served them on a toasted baguette with Pepper Jack Cheese, grilled peppers, and pickled jalapeños.

 

Southwest Meatballs

Servings: 25 meatballs

Hardware:  Measuring spoons and cups, a knife and chopping board, a mixing bowl, un-powdered latex gloves, a cooking sheet, tongs, foil, a deep skillet

Time:  Active time 10 minutes; Cook: 30 minutes, meatballs 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 2 packages of taco seasoning mix (or 2 tablespoons of your own)
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• Cooking spray

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• 2½  cups of your favorite salsa (I use Frontera Jalapeño Cilantro)
• ½ cup tomato sauce
• Hot sauce to taste (Tabasco Chipotle is my favorite)

1. Line the cooking sheet with foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray. Wash and chop the cilantro. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 375˚.
2. Put on the gloves. Combine the beef, breadcrumbs, milk, herbs and spices in the bowl and mix with your hands. Do not over mix the meat as it makes the meatballs chewy. Shape the mixture into meatballs. I use a ¼ cup measuring cup to ensure that my meatballs are all the same size. Place each meatball onto the foil lined sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes. At the 20-minute mark, check the largest meatball to make sure they are cooked through.
3. Place the salsa, tomato sauce and hot sauce in the skillet. Bring to a boil. Add the meatballs. Simmer for a few minutes and remove from the heat.

Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde means ‘green sauce' in Spanish. It gets the green from tomatillos (toe-MAH-tee-yoz), peppers and cilantro. First, what is a tomatillo? Even though they may look like tomatoes and ‘tomatillo’ means ‘little tomato’ in Spanish, they are not the same thing. Both tomatoes and tomatillos are nightshades, but they are very distantly related. Like third or fourth cousins. A green tomato is really bitter and very watery. Tomatillos are always green, much sweeter and crunchy. They taste like they look, bright and mildly floral. They are sometimes called husk tomatoes because they are covered in a dry brown husk. The fruit is sticky beneath the husk. They are most often used to make Salsa Verde.

Salsa Verde can be raw, boiled or roasted. I roasted the tomatillos and peppers to give my salsa a richer, smokier flavor. You can control the amount of smokiness by controlling the length of time you roast the tomatillos. Less smoke? Less char. More smoke? More char. I boiled the onions and herbs to remove the sharp bite they can have. You can skip this step if you like raw onions. You can also make your salsa spicier by using more peppers. Jalapeños can be substituted for Serranos. 

Now that you have this mouthwatering, bright green sauce, how can you use it? Use it instead of red salsa in any dish. My husband prefers Salsa Verde. He eats it on tacos, as a chip dip, stirs it into the sauce when making Chicken Enchilada Suizas,  and as a condiment on a Tex-Mex Burger.

Servings: About 3 cups of salsa

Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, measuring spoons and cups, a pot, a wooden spoon, a roasting pan or a large cast iron skillet, a blender or a food processor

Time:  Active time 15 minutes; Salsa in about 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pounds fresh tomatillos
• 2-3 Serrano peppers
• 3 cloves of garlic-unpeeled
• 1 small yellow onion (4-6 ounces)
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro
• ½ tablespoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• Salt
• Juice of ½ a lime 

Tomatillos

1. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse them under warm running water. They are sticky. Rub them until all the stickiness is gone. Dice the onion. Chop the herbs. Juice half the lime. Set everything aside.
2. Cut the tomatillos in half. Cut the peppers in half long ways. Place the tomatillos and peppers cut side down on the roasting pan/cast iron skillet. Throw in the garlic. Broil the tomatillos on the top rack of the oven until they are slightly charred (5-7 minutes.) Remove from the oven.
3. Bring the onions and herbs to a boil. Boil until them for about 10 minutes.
4. Peel the garlic and snap the tops from the peppers. Place everything in the blender and pulse to desired chunkiness. Taste and adjust the salt.