Chicken Enchiladas Verdes

Cravings come in many forms, mine are long and tube-like and covered with cheese today.

   It all began when I took my fantastic British boyfriend to the airport to go back home, we stopped and had a drink and a bite to eat at the airport before he left.  It was a small kiosk that has beer, tequila, and the inevitable chips, salsa and guacamole.  The salsa they gave us was a salsa verde, which I had never tried before, (I love things that are green you'd think I would have tried it already, but no!) and fell in love with it.  You see I'm still new to liking guacamole too...there are a great many things that I have learned to love this past year: artichokes, mushrooms, red wine, porter, guacamole, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something...but I have been training myself to enjoy these things because I -want- too. If I can train myself to not smoke tobacco, then why can't I train myself to enjoy mushrooms!!

off topic.

Salsa verde, right.  So this salsa verde the lady gave us was really delicious, and my need for it increased after a few days until I started doing my recipe research.  I find a few recipes, I watch a few YouTube videos, if there are new techniques or ingredients I am unfamiliar with, I research them out.

Tomatillos. Completely new to me.

Not a tomato, but in the gooseberry family

Ripe when the papery outside has split and become loose from the fruit, but not fallen off completely.

I roasted them, sliced in half, with a jalapeno, garlic, and a poblano, until the skin was a bit dark and they had collapsed. Into the processor with some raw onion and garlic, cilantro and lime, very spicy.

I found a jar one that's very nice, and much easier. I know how to make it, and understand the concept, but I was unable to make the right balance (like the simply amazingness of Trader Joe's Pico de Gallo) so I will sadly stick with a jar unless I need to impress someone ;)

What to do with this salsa verde? well, I don't care for either the red enchilada sauce or corn tortillas (I still have not convinced myself  to like corn tortillas, incidentally), but the idea was tempting to try it this way:

Poached chicken (and a bit of the broth)- shredded

cream cheese

sour cream

salsa verde

cilantro

chipotle garlic salsa

cheddar jack blend & Mexican melting cheese with jalapenos

refrigerated flour tortillas

I mixed the cream cheese and sour cream up, until it was still a bit thick, more like a loose mayo consistency, with the salsa verde, cilantro, chipotle garlic salsa ...just a bit of the red salsa and double that of the green. Taste it. Salt and Pepper if you want it. Get that chicken in the bowl!  I'll go into poaching chicken another time, when I'm confident i've mastered it.  :)

   Get your tortillas a bit wet with a mix of the broth and a bit of the salsa verde (smear some onto a paper plate and rub each one in it on both sides. Throw in the chicken and a good handful of cheese onto the tortillas, and fold them up, top with a bit more salsa and the rest oft he cheese.

   You want these to be sealed up, I have two of the same pans, so flip one on top of the other making a little metal box, but you can just put foil over it, but you may lose some cheese. The important thing is, you don't want these to get crispy, you basically want to steam them.

Hotcha!

I liked them with a bit of greens on the side and diced tomato.

Happy eating!
Jen