Chicken (or Vegetarian) Enchiladas Verdes [Recipe]

Enchiladas verdes is easily one of my favorite recipes and has now become a staple dish to bring to dinner for the holidays. I was nervous at first to stray away from the Christmas classics (turkey, green beans etc.) but my family loved these delicious homemade enchiladas! I usually make them with chicken, but you can also do vegetarian! Or if you'd prefer to dine vegan, you can opt out of the cheese and sour cream.

These enchiladas can easily be made in advance — just freeze them until ready to be served. 

I decided I'd unveil my recipe here...the secret's in the sauce! I blend a mixture of broiled peppers together with green chiles and garlic. It's the real deal! 

So here's how to make this mouthwatering dish...

Chicken (or Vegetarian) Enchiladas Verdes
Serves 7-9

You'll need:

• 13x9 baking pan - I usually opt for a glass one but if you're making these to bring over to dinner somewhere, you might choose a disposable one so your guests have fewer dishes and you don't have to worry about accidentally leaving your dishware. 
• Food processor or blender for the enchilada sauce

Ingredients:

Enchilada stuffing

• 1.5lb chicken breast (for vegetarian, use a mixture of frozen corn and black beans...I like Trader's Joes street corn mixture that's found in the freezer section!)
• 2x 8 oz bags of shredded Mexican cheese of choice
• 3 oz light sour cream
• Cilantro
• 1 lb (30 ct) Mission yellow corn tortillas

For the sauce

• 2x 15oz cans green enchilada sauce
• 2x 7 oz cans of green chiles
• 2-6 jalapeno peppers
• 4-6 tomatillos (optional)
• 1-2 poblano peppers
• 1-2 garlic cloves

Optional toppings

• Avocado
• Diced tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Green onions
• Cotija cheese

Instructions:

1. Cook chicken on stove w/ 2 tbsp olive oil and black pepper - (vegetarians can simply pour the black bean and corn mixture into a medium to large bowl and set aside)
2. When chicken is almost cooked, take off pan and shred the chicken apart with two forks
3. Place shredded chicken back onto pan and cook until no longer pink
4. Place chicken in a bowl and set aside

For the sauce:

1. Set the oven to broil
2. Wash all peppers and tomatillos. De-seed jalapeños and poblano peppers or leave seeds in if you want it to be spicy
3. Place the peppers, tomatillos into a 9x9 (or similar) pan and drizzle some olive oil over it. Broil in the oven for around 10 min or until browned
4. Place broiled peppers and minced garlic into food processor and blend until liquid
5. Mix the liquid pepper mixture together with the green enchilada sauce and green chiles in large bowl
6. Set aside

For the tortillas:

1. Spray PAM on a small to medium pan on hi-heat (8-9) and cook each corn tortilla until slightly browned. I find it useful to have two pans going at the same time to speed up the process

Making the enchiladas:

1. Set oven to 400F
2. In a 9x13in pan, pour in some of the enchilada sauce to form a bottom base
3. Put a few dollops of sour cream in a Ziploc baggie and cut off a small portion of the bottom corner so you can spread the sour cream on the enchilada in a controlled manner (kinda like cookie icing)
4. Grab a tortilla and fill with a small amount of chicken, then top with cheese and a few cilantro leaves, then spread a small bit of sour cream on it
5. Roll the enchilada up and place in pan (see this video on how to roll enchilada)
6. Repeat until the pan is full. Approx 24 tortillas (2 bags) should fill up a 9x13 pan
7. Cover the enchiladas with remainder of sauce
8. Top with cheese
9. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30min at 400F
10. Take aluminum foil off and bake for another 10 min
11. Once ready to serve, add optional toppings (cilantro, avocado, cotija cheese, green onions etc.)

ENJOY!