enchiladas de pollo con salsa verde

April 27th, 2007 @ 05:15 PM

So many friends have asked me for Mexican recipes over the past year, that I figured it would be most beneficial to all, not to mention more fun, to just post them here… it also fills up space for when I really don’t have anything interesting to relay to the world about whats going on in my own world of work…enjoy!

Enchiladas de pollo con salsa verde

This will more or less feed 4-6 starving fools with a bit of salsa let over for some chilaquilles in the morning

Salsa verde

I’ve taken 4 different salsa recipes and mixed them together to come out with what I think is the best salsa verde in existence! Nojoke! the original recipe is tomas’ mothers, another one is from one of Diana kennedy’s books, the third is from Salvador a Mexican friend in Miami (he’s originally from Chihuahua) and the last bits are from Pablo, a Lebanese- Mexican friend I have now.

(You can make this up to 2 days in advance- the longer it sits the better it will taste)

Ingredients

• 15 medium sized tomatillos (those little green tomatoes that come in a brown husk)- take the husks off and wash the tomatillos • 6 serano chiles (for a medium state of spicy) • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves– washed and roughly chopped • Ground Sea salt – 1tbsp • ½ large white onion- sliced • 2 garlic cloves- mashed with the side of a knife (not chopped) • ¼ cup of white vinegar • ¼ cup Vegetable oil for frying • Large frying pan filled with about ½ inch of water • Blender • A gas stove is best- or use a frying pan to blister ½ of the ingredients

directions

Place the large frying pan with water on the stove top, med-low heat. Place the onion, ½ the seranos and ½ the tomatillos in there, watch the tomatillos carefully, for about 8 -10 min. the tomatillos should be a little squishy but don’t let them loose the green color. If they become too yellowish, you will end up with salsa Amarillo, yellow sauce, instead! So make sure they keep green. When finished, set aside. Reserve the water, you’re going to use this to make the sauce later.

Take the other ½ of the tomatillos and the rest of the chiles and burns the shit out of them on the flame of the stove. Try to get them black all over-

Place all the tomatillos in a bowl (both the cooked and burnt ones) and place all of the the seranos together in a dish. get the blender ready. have the pan with the water onions and garlic, the tomatillos, seranos, the cilantro, vinegar and salt all near the blender. And get an extra empty bowl to store the sauce in after its been blended. Begin the blending by adding cilantro, 4 tomatillos (2 cooked and two burnt) part of one clove, some onion, some vinegar, some salt and some of the water from the pan- blend it on high so its soupy and mixed well pur the sauce into the extra bowl. Repeat this until you’ve used all the sauce ingredients up—

Back at the stove now, place the frying oil in a large pot and heat it up to high—when its hot and ready, pour the sauce into the pot slowly- and let it fry- until it rises to a full boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer and let it smmer for about 15-20 min to cook it down a bit to thicken it up. Will keep for a few days in the fridge.

Enchiladas

This is recipe is all tomas’ mom….mariana

ingredients

• 5-6 medium sized cleaned chicken breasts • ½ large white onion sliced • ½ large white onion chopped well • ½ large purple onion chopped well • 2 garlic gloves • 1 tsp salt • Pot for boiling chicken with enough water to cover boiling chicen • 15-18 normal sized corn tortillas (if you can find them hand made, that is the best!) • Large 2 inch tall (or so) ovenproof baking dish • 1 ½ cups Mexican crema- or sour cream • 2 cups cheese- the best is a mixture of queso oaxaca and queso fresco (you can usually find this at any decent grocery store- though if you have a Mexican market in town, best to go there as the cheese will be fresher you can add a little parmesan for bite- also cheddar or jack- what ever you feel like, so long that it melts well…shred and cut up the cheese so it is in small cubes or pieces- and meltable • Large pan for frying • 1 cup of vegetable oil for frying • 10 paper towels folded in ½ • Tin foil • 6 limes halved or quartered • ¼ cup cilantro cleaned and chopped

Directions

Boil water in pot and then place the chicken, sliced onion, garlic and salt into the pot. Cook until done. When finished set chicken on a place to cool. Once cooled, shred/pull the chicken apart with your fingers as thin as you can get it and set aside. You can keep the water for a stock or soup.

Heat up the oil in the fry pan on high heat. Once sizzling, place the tortillas in one by one for about 5 secs on each side- you want them to be fried but not crispy/hard. After each tortilla is fried, place it in the fold of a paper towel and then layer them as you fry onto the paper towels to soak out some of the oil and this also keeps them from getting hard.

Pre-heat the oven to about 350

At this point you need the salsa verde- place a ½ inch layer of salsa in the baking dish, and form an assembly line with your ingredients, or just have them all in arms length of you- start with a tortilla, fill the middle section with the shredded chicken, roll it up, and then place it on one end of the pan. Repeat this until you’ve filled up the pan’s bottom forming a row of tortillas. Smear a good amount of crema over the top of the tortillas then generously sprinkle some chopped white onion on top of that, then smother cheese on top of the enchiladas. Then take a ladle and pour salsa verde over everything, make sure you get it all wet and juicy, because you don’t want to it to dry out in the oven. Begin again by placing another layer of chicken filled tortillas over the first layer and repeat the process covering it all again with more salsa verde- lots of it!....repeat this again if you have any left over tortillas and chicken, filling up even the sides of the dish if you need to. (writing this is making me soo hungry!)

Cover the dish with tin foil and place it in the oven for15-20 min. you mainly want the cheese and crema to melt over everything.

Have little dishes with extra salsa (heated up), limes, cilantro, creama and the purple onions, some crumbled queso fresco, and salt to serve…and some Mexican beer of course! Bohemia is a good one if you can find it.

Buen provecho!

xoxo christina