Chicken Enchiladas with homemade Picante Sauce Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009

Rainy Day, Birdeye

Unfortunately Chloe's on her third day of high fever battling the flu, she dozed off for a much needed nap and of course I went straight to the cookbooks. Since I have plenty of tomatoes and jalapenos in the garden, I decided on chicken enchiladas with homemade picante sauce. This is my first time making this sauce but I can say I am loving its freshness and my hands are on fire from the japs, but I love it, you know I do. This is a great, quick, fresh recipe for enchiladas that I have made before but the addition of homemade sauce was quite refreshing.

Chicken Enchiladas

3-4 C. cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 C. chopped onion
1 T. veg oil, I used grape seed
1 t. cumin
1 T. chili powder, I used my hot from Penzy's
12 flour tortillas
2 C. shredded cheddar, I used Colby jack
1 C. enchilada sauce, I used Mexican style canned, not Olde El Paso
1 C. homemade Picante sauce, try to not used the jarred

Saute chicken and onions in large skilled in the oil. Add cumin and chili powder. Cook until chicken is dry over low heat. Spoon onto flour tortillas with cheese. Roll to enclose filling and arrange in baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Combine enchilada sauce (if you have time to make your own, by all means do so!) and picante sauce (see homemade recipe that follows) and pour over enchiladas. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Garnish with lettuce, sour cream, olives and tomatoes.

Picante Sauce (yes, the bomb.com)

14 fresh jalapeno peppers (not jarred or canned, duh! as Chloe would say, but you can)
1 green bell pepper, I used a purple right out of the garden
1 4oz. can green chiles, I used three fresh pablanos right out of the garden, I roasted them at 350 degrees for 10 min, then they hung out in a paper bag for 15 min, then slice, get rid of the seeds and chop, ten times better than that can I use in the winter)
1 large onion, finely chopped, I grated, I can't cut that small
2-28 oz. can whole tomatoes, I used 5 homegrown Better Boy tomatoes and one can petite diced tomatoes.
Juice of 2 limes, don't use fake, but if you have to it won't be the end of the world

Seed and chop jalapeno peppers, remove seeds and insides using a spoon. Combine with bell pepper, poblanos, onion, tomatoes and lime juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1-1/2-2 hours. May use fresh tomatoes instead of canned to make chunky sauce. If sauce is too hot, add additional tomatoes. Makes 20 servings. Of course, I only cooked this for 1 hour while I made the enchiladas then poured sauce on top and cooked remaining picante sauce for an hour and a half. The remaining sauce I'll use all week in a variety of ways like eggs and for chip and dip.

This is a wonderful, low fat spin on enchiladas plus it freezes well and can be used one of those nights you need a meal and don't have the time which is most of my life.