Hello and Chicken Enchiladas

Well, I'm back. That vacation went a bit longer than I had intended it to. If only the part of it that was spent in Cozumel had gone longer too! I've been getting back into the habit of meal-planning and cooking more and more, but it has still been a rather sporadic thing. Josh has been practicing several nights a week, and along with shows, plans with friends and a good pinch of laziness cooking hasn't been a full-time thing again just yet. And just as some of this stuff will be slowing down after Friday, other things will be picking up. We'll be starting the house hunt this weekend, which I'm sure will only make me crazier, and then lazier. So things won't be quite back to normal for some time I would guess, but I am back to cooking and will be happy to share the new recipes I make when I get the chance. :)

So, we had a little Mexican/Caribbean vacation earlier this month and upon our return I wanted to keep us in the vacation spirit. To help I decided to make these Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Sauce for dinner the week after we got back. This recipe had been sitting around on my To-Cook list for an embarrassingly long time. I figured like crossing it off would be a good way to jump back into the kitchen habit. I halved this recipe, just using the two chicken breasts I had in the freezer. That was apparently more chicken than I needed cause I ended up making two extra enchiladas and still had some chicken leftover. The extra enchiladas threw off my salsa ratio a bit, so these enchiladas were truthfully a little dry. But they were also truthfully delicious! And I can only imagine that they will be that much better when I get the math right.

Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Sauce
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 6













3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves
Coarse salt and ground pepper
5 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 jars (16 ounces each) medium green salsa
3/4 cup heavy cream
12 corn tortillas (6-inch)
12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, coarsely shredded (3 cups)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Season chicken with salt and pepper; place with garlic on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast (avoiding bone) registers 165 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine salsa and cream.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Once chicken is cool enough to handle, shred meat, discarding skin and bones. Peel and chop garlic. In a large bowl, combine chicken, garlic, and 1/2 cup salsa mixture.
• Stack tortillas flat, and wrap in damp paper towels; microwave on high for 1 minute to soften. Working with one tortilla at a time, dip in salsa mixture, lay flat, and fill with 1/3 cup chicken mixture. Roll up and arrange, seam side down, 8 enchiladas lengthwise and 4 crosswise in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with remaining salsa mixture, then cheese.
• Bake until cheese is browned and salsa is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes; let rest 10 minutes. Serve, sprinkled with cilantro, if desired.

My notes: I will definitely be making this recipe again, and probably just make the full-size batch so I don't have to worry about any of that pesky dividing. The only other change I might make would be to add a bit of cheese to the filling. I served this with Cilantro-Lime Rice on the side and our usual pre-dinner salad.