North of 49 Chicken Enchiladas

When I was growing up in the 80's, there was a Tex-Mex chain restaurant called Chi-Chi's that we loved as young high school/university students. This was a time when families were larger and certainly our family of 5 wasn't heading to Mexico for holidays, and other than Chinese buffets and Greek pizza joints, the food scene in the lower mainland wasn't the dazzling cosmopolitan array it is now. So Chi-Chi's was really our first taste of anything resembling Mexican food (Old El Paso taco kits notwithstanding). There was a magic spice we couldn't figure out or get enough of, it being unfamiliar to us. But one day, sniffing through bulk section spice aisles, me and my sisters figured out that the magic flavour had to be cumin! We hurried home with it, and on a memorable New Year's Eve we managed to construct some sort of tortilla filled with a chicken concoction that tasted - well, kind of like these enchiladas. This recipe, much tweaked, originated from a Better homes and Gardens book that adds more things we didn't think of back then. But it certainly has the cumin.



Along with the cumin, we add coriander and a small can of diced green chiles. We always did have the minced onion and garlic. In this case, 3-4 cloves, and a whole diced onion.

Sautee the onion and garlic in your oil of choice, and when transparent, sprinkle on a teaspoon each of cumin and ground coriander. If you lean more towards that funky taste of cumin, bump that up a bit. If you like the fragrance and slightly more citrusy taste of coriander, add more of that.

Esssentially, you're making a sort of beige sauce thickened with a bit of flour and sour cream. There's a lot of ways to do that, but my preferred way is to add a knob of butter and let it melt and bubble a bit. I then sprinkle about 2 Tbsp of flour over everything and incorporate it into the onion/garlic mix. Add about 1/3 cup of the chicken stock to make a liquidy paste.

Add 1 cup of sour cream, start incorporating that, and as you stir it in, start pouring in the chicken stock. It's all easier than it sounds and is the least lumpy way I've found to get a smooth sauce.



Once all the stock and cream is incorporated, stir in the drained green chiles, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

At this point, the original recipe calls for melting in 1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese. I'm sure it would be good, but I can't digest that stuff. So horror of horrors - I actually use 1 cup of cottage cheese. I like it. It adds a mild cheesiness, thickens the sauce, and I can eat it without feeling sick. But add whatever cheese you can eat.
While the sauce is simmering, shred or dice your cooked poultry. This is from a leftover Christmas turkey breast, but you could use any pre-cooked meat. Rotisserie chicken works great. You want about 3 cups of cooked meat, but really, use what you have.

Scoop some of the sauce onto the meat to moisten it.



and now you're ready to roll it into tortillas. These are big 9 inch flour tortillas and every time I make these, I say to myself "I should have bought the smaller ones". I am convinced those would work better, but I have no evidence. Yet, I recommend using the smaller ones.



For 3 cups of poultry and using big tortillas, you'll end up with about 6 enchiladas to fit into an 18x9 inch baking pan. Again, though, you can adjust it to what you have on hand.

Pour the remaining sauce over the filled enchiladas. If you use all the sauce, the bottom of the tortillas gets kind of soft, almost like pasta. I happen to like that, but if you find that gross, hold some sauce back. It can be spooned over as a topping onto the cooked enchiladas later.



It's all pretty beige at this point. That's OK. Put it on the centre rack of a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes.

At about the 25 minute mark, sprinkle them with diced tomato, black olives, and green onions. Cheese lovers can also add cheese. Now it's less beige! Bake for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how soft you want your tomatoes to get.
Remove from oven and let set for about 5-10 minutes before serving.




3 cups cooked diced or shredded poultry*

3-4 cloves minced garlic
1 onion, diced
1 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1 tsp cumin (or more to taste)
1 tsp coriander (ditto)

1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour

1 4 oz can diced green chiles
1 c sour cream
2 cups chicken stock

1 cup cheese - Monterey Jack, Cheddar, or in my case, cottage cheese.

Flour tortillas - 6 nine inch tortillas or 8-10 6 inch tortillas. I hate corn tortillas but use those if you like them better.

Mince garlic and dice onion and sautee in oil till transparent. Stir in cumin and coriander. Melt butter till frothy, then sprinkle in flour, incorporate into a paste. Add apx 1/3 chicken stock till a smooth thick liquid is formed. Stir in sour cream, then slowly pour in remaining stock. Add drained green chiles. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then add cheese, if using. Allow to melt

Scoop about 1/2 to 3/4 cup sauce onto diced cooked poultry to moisten.

Roll into enchiladas and place in greased, 18x9 inch baking dish

Bake at 375 degrees for total 35 minutes

at 25 minute mark, garnish with chopped tomatoes, olives, green onions, and additional cheese, if using. Bake a further 10 minutes

Allow to set 5-10 minutes before serving

*I've always thought it that it would be good to use less poutry, and add some sauteed mushrooms, peppers and maybe spinach. Or black beans. But I haven't done that yet. Someone should try it, though.