The Recipe I used had a lot of short cuts, but that doesn't mean that this dish was less messy to make. I've watched enough cooking shows to know and understand the basics of enchilada making, even if I didn't know the flavor palette, and it involves a lot of dipping, filling and rolling. So word of advise before you start this dish, PLAN, CLEAN as you go along, and try to keep organized. All things I am terrible at.
First step was to make the salsa verde ("green salsa"). I husked the tomatillos and finding them sticky, gave them a quick wash. I also added in a big old green heirloom tomato because I didn't quite have enough tomatillos to adequately satisfy the recipe. See, since the recipe clearly served more than just two people I was planning on halving it. But the comments underneath the recipe suggested to double the sauce (which for me meant making ALL of the sauce). Since our supermarket, despite being in a high Hispanic neighborhood, lacked tomatillos, I needed to make due with what I had. The Tomato, and tomatillos went into a roasting pan along with some garlic, onions and two Jalapenos (seeds and ribs removed). 30 minutes later, out they came, for a quick spin in Taylor, then stand by.
That went easy enough. I then chopped an onion and melted it down before adding the garlic and the cumin. THEN I realized that I hadn't shredded the chicken so, I turned off the heat and went to work breaking that baby down. Remember, when doing this, that the majority of the chicken needs to make it into the pot, not into the mouth. Returning to my pan, I turned back on the heat and threw in an 1/8 of a cup of flour, cooking it for a bit to ward off the raw flour flavor. Then came the chicken stock, slowly and stirring while it adds. if you add the stock to fast you can accidentally cook the flour and end up with dumplings instead of a smooth sauce, not good. Once it thickened up I tossed the chicken in, along with 1/2 the salsa verde.
Next step is assembly. The first step is to lightly heat up the tortillas, this can be done straight over the burners of the stove if they are clean enough, mine are not so I used the cast iron as protection. Flipp quickly. Then pour the remainder of the salsa into a shallow dish or bowl of some kind, this is to coat the tortillas in. Find the right shallow and wide enough plate or bowl, do not dirty every single bowl in the kitchen like I did looking for it. Then, once the tortillas are coated, put about 1/2 a cup of filling in the middle, add some shredded cheese and roll like a cigar. then place the cigar into a waiting pan. Repeat until you run out of room in the pan or you run out of filling, which ever comes first.
Cover with salsa left in the plate/bowl/whatever, and lots of extra cheese.
Final Step BAKE till melty and bubbly.
The End Result (not very attractive unfortunately):
The Verdict:
I found this dish to be decent, although slightly underwhelming in the spice department. I probably could have left some of the seeds and ribs in the jalapenos. The Husband, however, was very pleased. He told me at least 3 times and, gasp, ate leftovers with joy. I guess he liked it. Which sucks for me because this takes a really long time, and it's messy. I will have to work on a short cut.
The Recipe:
Recipe Credit goes to Tyler Florence from his show Tyler's Ultimate on The Food Network and can be found HERE.
Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa:
- 1 pound tomatillos, husked
- 1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 jalapenos
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken stock, storebought
- Chopped cilantro leaves
- 1 deli roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, meat shredded
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 10 large flour tortillas
- 1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.
- Meanwhile heat a olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized - this should take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for a further minute.
- Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn't burn then gradually add the chicken stock to make a veloute. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens.
- Turn off the heat, add half of the roasted tomatillo chile salsa, some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
- Change the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and begin assembling the dish.
- Take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa.
- Now take the flour tortillas and briefly flash them over the stove-top flame (or put them briefly under the broiler if using an electric stove).
- Using a shallow bowl, coat each tortilla lightly with the reserved salsa mix.
- Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix on top of the tortilla followed by a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll like a cigar to enclose it.
- Using a spatula place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all the tortillas. Finally pour over some more of the salsa and top with the remaining shredded cheese.
- Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top.
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