Chicken Enchiladas

A recipe from our awesome friend Johnny, who passed away.  One of Trent’s and Johnny’s  friends requested the recipe, so here goes.  Hope Johnny doesn’t mind, I’m sure he doesn’t.  Love you, buddy!

Disposable foil baking pans, rectangle, at least two

1 whole chicken, unwrapped, giblets out, washed. You can also use boneless skinless breasts or thighs

1 tsp salt

Water to cover chicken in a crock pot

One 16 oz. container sour cream

2 to 3 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can diced chiles AND/OR one can diced jalapenos, strained (see below)

Flour Tortillas, burrito size

Cans of Enchilada sauce to brand taste and quantity (see below)

Shredded Mexican blend cheese, one bag to two bags

NOTE: The green chiles add flavor and are delicious.  One time I bought the wrong thing, much to the dismay of the man, I got diced jalapenos.  What a fortunate mistake!  It had heat, flavor, etc.  I now add BOTH to ours, because we like HOT.

Sorry for the in-exact-ness of this recipe.  The thing is, you just don’t know how much chicken you are going to yield from your selected yummy fryer.  So…here goes:

Place the chicken in the crock pot and add the water to cover along with the teaspoon or so of salt.  Cook the daylights out of that chicken, 6 hours at least, preferably 8 hours on low.  By then, that thing is falling apart just begging to be in this recipe.

When it’s done, remove the meat from the bones, clean it WELL of all skin, bone, gristle, and anything un-yummy, that all needs to go to the “Thank You For Coming” can.  Shred the good chicken either with a fork or *bazinga* I just tried it with my handmixer the other day on a tip, and it worked like magic.  Shred-er-roni, fast.

Mix the shredded chicken in a large bowl with the sour cream and 2 cans chicken soup, add the strained green chiles or jalapenos or both and mix well.  In-exact-ness alert:  If it’s not creamy enough add another half can of soup.  It should still look firm and chunky with chicken but not like it’s battling itself for moisture.  A nice, stirrable concoction, but not too runny. 

Fill your flour tortillas with a few or more than a few tablespoons of the chicken filling and roll.  Place them seam side down in the unprepared (naked) disposable foil pans.  Fill the pan with a single layer of enchilada rolls.  You might need two pans.

Another in-exact-ness here….enchilada sauce.  Use your favorite.  We like Las Palmas, the big cans (available at Winco, probably at Walmart).  We would use at least one large can per pan of tortilla rolled enchiladas.  We make a regular pan and a spicy pan, using the regular and spicy enchilada sauces.  Make sure each tortilla roll gets a good soaking of enchilada sauce.  If in doubt, pour more out.  Yum.

Cover the whole enchilada (that’s a joke) with shredded cheese and bake 30-45 mins at 350 degrees, basically to bubbling and cheese melted deliciousness.

You can freeze any unbaked pans for later, make sure they are tightly protected in bags or with foil, we do both.  .  Make sure they are covered with foil for baking.  It takes longer for them to bake, but bake  from frozen at 350, and just make sure it all gets well heated through, taking the foil off at the end to melt the cheese, and keep testing the middle ones .  Yummo.

Catering: Mini Cream Cheese and Cheddar Biscuits with Spicy Sausage Gravy

Mini Cream Cheese and Cheddar Biscuits and Spicy Sausage Gravy

(adapted from iamafoodblog.com)

Makes between 24 and 30 mini biscuits or 10-12 regular biscuits

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1 tsp soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 Tbsp sliced green onion

4 Tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

8 Tbsp cold cream cheese, cut into pieces

Slightly more than ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

12 Tbsp Milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt, pepper and green onion.  Cut in the butter with pastry blender until there are a few pea-sized pieces.  Cut in the cream cheese the same way.  Add cheddar.  Add the milk and stir until just combined.  Turn out onto a floured surface and work the dough until just able to cut biscuits.  Cut with a 1” biscuit cutter.

Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, bake 8-10 minutes.

For full sized biscuits:  Oven temp 425, bake for 15-17 minutes.

Spicy Sausage Gravy

Fry a one pound chub of Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage into crumbles.  Add at least ½ cup flour and 2 Tbsp butter to the pan and cook until the raw flour smell is out.  Add about 4-6 cups milk, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer to desire thickness, salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: Used the Pampered Chef 1" flower shape cutter, worked well. The biscuits can be made ahead and warmed.  The gravy is easy enough to make on site and keep in a sauce server or crock pot, stands up well with frequent stirring.