ångel food

Neither of us had ever had anything like enchiladas before we first attempted this recipe, so this was a true culinary adventure! We skimmed the ingredient list and didn’t see anything to turn us off — chicken, cheese, yummy tomato chili sauce, all rolled up in a warm corn tortilla. The cooking method is clear and easy to follow, and the results did not disappoint. Since then, we’ve made it many more times, including a double batch for our Cinco de Mayo party this year. My husband likes to tell people that the best part of this recipe is the sauce and filling left in the dish after serving the enchiladas; be sure to have some tortilla chips on the side to scoop it up.

Chicken Enchiladas

If you prefer, Monterey Jack can be used instead of cheddar or, for a mellower flavor and creamier texture, try substituting an equal amount of farmer’s cheese. Be sure to cool the chicken before filling the tortillas, or the hot filling will make the enchiladas soggy.

Serves 4 or 5 people.

Original Source: America’s Test Kitchen
+ Cook’s Illustrated, 05/2003 (premium content)
+ The Best International Recipe pp. 20-22

Click here to view Chicken Enchiladas pictures »

Related How-Tos: Deboning and Skinning Chicken Thighs, Dicing Onions

Make-Ahead: The best place to pause this recipe is after making the sauce and mixing the cooled chicken in with the rest of the filling (step 1 online, step 3 in book); if you fully assemble the enchiladas and pour over the sauce before storing, the tortillas can get a bit soggy. Cover the bowl containing the enchilada filling with plastic wrap and store the sauce separately in a glass jar. Assemble and bake as directed when ready to serve.

Leftovers: Although they are certainly not as good as freshly made, you can reheat leftovers in the microwave or oven. Excess filling is excellent for quesadillas.

Scalable: I cut this recipe in half, making five enchiladas, to serve just my husband and me. It’s not as straightforward as halving all of the ingredients, as I’ve found that the chili sauce tends to reduce a bit too much if you cook it for the full time. Keep an eye on the sauce while you simmer it, and opt for the shorter end of the cooking range (8 minutes) instead of the full time (10 minutes). Substitute a square 8×8-inch baking dish for the 13×9-inch pan recommended in the recipe. You can also increase the recipe to feed more people; simply doubling the ingredients and using multiple baking dishes works just fine. Two to three enchiladas per person is a pretty good estimate.

• Slightly different recipes: If you have access to both the book and online versions of this recipe, you may have noticed that they are not exactly the same. The differences are minor, but enough that I’ll mention them here. We use the recipe from the book and will probably continue to do so since the online recipe uses less cheese! Add in 3/4 cup of water with the tomato sauce instead of just 1/4 cup, and shred 10 ounces of cheese (2 1/2 cups), which includes 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling on top of the enchiladas. The only other modification we make is that we halve the amount of cilantro suggested. We find the flavor of the cilantro to be a bit overpowering and tend to use it sparingly in other recipes as well, so that’s just personal preference.
• Thinly slicing raw meat: If the raw chicken is a bit too wobby to slice into thin strips, stick it in the freezer briefly to firm it up a bit, about 15 minutes.
• Using homemade tortillas and sauce: We’ve tried this recipe with both store-bought and homemade corn tortillas, and I think we’re split on the issue. He likes them with the homemade tortillas while I prefer the store-bought. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of the homemade corn tortillas in general, mostly because I didn’t like their stronger corn flavor. If you like them homemade and don’t mind the extra work, go for it! Making the enchilada sauce from scratch doesn’t add much extra work to this recipe, and since you cook the chicken in the sauce it doesn’t add much extra time to it either. The editors of Cook’s Illustrated are very adamant about using homemade sauce instead of buying canned sauce from the grocery store.
• Don’t over-reduce the enchilada sauce: Be careful not to reduce the chili sauce too much in the beginning or you won’t have very much to spread in the baking dish or over the enchiladas. It should still be smooth and fluid enough to roll around by tilting the dish. You don’t need all that much, just enough to barely coat the baking dish and then moisten the tops of the enchiladas. This is more of a danger if you scale the recipe down.
• Take care when handling jalapeños: I would recommend having gloves to work with the jalapeños or to really clean your hands after you mince them. The capsaicin in the chilis is very painful on sensitive body parts like the eyes, mouth, and nose. Sources on how to cool a capsaicin burn are conflicted — some say dairy works, other recommend oil, still others vinegar, and all versions have people claiming they don’t work at all. I ended up soothing my burn with cool water until it faded. Best to wear gloves when handling chili peppers and to keep your hands away from your face!
• Not a fan of spicy foods? I was worried that the jalapeños would be too much for me to handle, as I’m a bit sensitive to spicy foods, but I really like the flavor they add. A little bit of sour cream and plenty of milk or water help out immensely. I’m not a very good judge for rating the spiciness of foods, but I’d probably rate this somewhere between mild and moderately hot. If you don’t like jalapeños, you can just leave them out completely.
• Serving the enchiladas: There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to get the enchiladas out of the pan, having the tortilla come undone at the seam, and ending up with filling everywhere but the plate. I like to use a two-turner method: slide two thin-edged turners (the wider the better) on either side of the enchilda; carefully slide one under the enchilada while supporting the opposite side with the second turner; lift the enchilada from the baking dish between the two turners. It really helps if you can remember which way the seam is sitting on the dish. Slipping the turner under the seam instead of against it will vastly improve your chances of successful depanning.

Tags: Leftovers, Make-Ahead, Medium Difficulty, Scalable

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Chicken, Main Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.