Salsa Verde Sour Cream Enchiladas and Mexican Rice

{adapted from The Novice Chef}

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Chicken Enchiladas are one of my favorites to order at our local Mexican restaurant and to make at home.  But sometimes you want something different than your "usual" at the Mexican place.  These hit the spot!  They are so much better than the enchiladas with red sauce at the Mexican restaurant.  The sauce didn't take very long to make and I cooked my chicken the day before, so they came together pretty quickly . 

Cal really liked them; he had seconds and thought about thirds.  Definitely a keeper.  I'm always trying to get him to eat more chicken.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 Serrano peppers diced (I used 1 green bell pepper)
2 Jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups sour cream
16 ounce jar Medium Salsa Verde
1½ teaspoons cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Flour Tortillas, fajita size
½ medium onion, diced
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium size sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Saute green pepper and jalapeno peppers until soft, add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in flour and cook 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in the chicken broth and let cook until bubbly.  Stir in sour cream, salsa, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper and garlic powder, until sauce is smooth.  Remove from heat.

Spray/grease a 9x13 baking dish.  Spread 1 cup of sauce to the bottom of the dish.  Combine the diced onion with the shredded chicken.  Add some chicken-onion mixture and cheese to the center of each tortilla, placing seam-side down in the dish.  Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, and top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 25 minutes until brown and bubbly.

I served with Mexican rice and chips and salsa.




Mexican Rice
{from All Recipes}

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup chopped onion
1 cup long-grain rice
1½ teaspoon taco seasoning
½ teaspoon cumin
½ cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Directions:

In a large sauce pan, heat oil over medium and add rice and onion.  Cook, stirring frequently until rice is golden and onion is soft.  Sprinkle in taco seasoning and cumin.  Stir in tomato sauce and broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.

Mexican Lasagna

Source:  The Newlywed Cookbook, Robin Miller

I received another large care package of vegetables from the garden – green peppers, jalapenos, Anaheim peppers, red onions, green onions, garlic – and I was trying to come up with a meal that would include several of these ingredients.  Something Mexican was naturally my first thought.  Enchiladas sounded good, but I didn’t feel like rolling all of those things up.  Ah ha!  That mexican lasagna!  It’s kind of similar to enchiladas, but it’s a lot easier to just layer everything together.  Yum! 

This dish used at least one of each of the vegetables!  Ah ha! Killing multiple birds with one stone.

Sprinkled some green onions on top and served with some homemade chips made from the leftover tortillas.  And some chili-cheese dip, I snuck a couple extra jalapenos in there too!  So. Good.  Yum!

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Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sour cream (I used low-fat)

2 cups Mexican shredded cheese

½ cup salsa (I used 1 can of Ro-tel)

4 oz. can chopped green chilis (I used a small chopped green pepper and a small chopped anaheim pepper)

1½ tsp. cumin

flour tortillas (or you can use corn tortillas, I like flour better), cut into quarters or smaller

 

Preheat oven to 350°

Directions:

1. Boil chicken for 10 minutes or so until cooked through.  I season it with salt, pepper and garlic.  Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes.
2. Mix together the chicken, sour cream, 1½ cups of the cheese, salsa, chilis, cumin, and season with s&p if needed.
3. Spay 11x7 baking dish with cooking spray.  Layer some tortillas on the bottom, top with the chicken mixture, and alternate with tortillas ending up on the top layer.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. 
4. Bake for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.  You may need to cover it with foil to keep it from getting to brown.

Vidalia Onion Casserole

From the kitchen of: Mom

(it’s the round dish in the back of the photo)

I have no idea where this recipe originally came from, but it has been in our family for a really long time.  It’s one of my favorites!  It almost tastes like a Bloomin’ Onion from Outback!

This is really easy to make, except it takes FOREVER to slice the onions.   Slicing them is the longest part, but then it’s a snap to put together.

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Ingredients:

5-6 Vidalia onions, sliced very thin

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup melted butter

1 tube Ritz crackers, crushed

¼ cup milk

 

Directions:

1. Place onions and a couple tablespoons of water in a large bowl and microwave for 5-6 minutes, to partially cook them.  Drain.
2. Mix onions, cheese and butter and put in casserole dish.  Sprinkle crushed Ritz on top and pour milk all over the top.
3. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
4. OMG YUM!

Chicken Tamale Casserole

"CAL Seal of Approval"

Sorry for the bad picture, it was an after-thought because this was SCARFED UP so fast! 


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Ingredients:

• 1 cup preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup milk
  
• 1 egg, instead of egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14 3/4 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8 1/2 ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Martha White)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
• cooking spray
• 1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce (such as Old El Paso)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts (I cooked 4 chicken breasts with an onion, green pepper, and 1 jalapeno)
• 1/2 cup nonfat sour cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles), stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes or until set. (It takes longer than 15 minutes.  I baked mine for 20-25 minutes and it could have used maybe 5-10 more.)  Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Ok I'm slightly embarrassed by this recipe, because it has Cheez Whiz in it, but It. Is. So. GOOD!

Shhhh! You don't have to tell anyone there's Cheez Whiz in it. I'm sure there's a way to make it with a roux, or maybe just some mayonnaise or sour cream and real cheddar, but this is the recipe I know and I didn't want to change it.


This is the whole recipe for a 9x13 casserole dish, but I just made a half recipe this time and used an 8x8.

1. Brown 8-10 Chicken Breasts with butter, maybe 1/2 stick, in a large skillet until cooked through. Season with S&P. (I used 4 cooked in 2 little pats of butter)
2. Meanwhile, cook 2 cups of Rice and defrost 2 packages of frozen chopped Broccoli. (1 cup rice and 1 pkg. broccoli)
   
3. Remove chicken from pan and saute 1 onion and 3-4 stalks celery. (1 onion, 2 stalks celery)
4. Add in 1 can Cream of Mushroom and 1 can Cream of Chicken soup and a small jar of Cheez Whiz. Heat until melted. (I just used 1 cream of mushroom and a few scoops out of the Cheez Whiz)
5. Mix together this mixture, with the chicken, broccoli, and rice; put in a 9x13 casserole dish. Top with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes until hot and bubbly. This can be made ahead and frozen.

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Source: A Slice of Sikeston, Chapter HB P.E.O.