green chilies – The Pajama Chef

Annette’s Layered Chicken Enchiladas

January 31, 2017January 30, 2017 Sarah

Cheesy, bubbly layered chicken enchiladas–so comforting and delicious. This dinner is super easy and can be made ahead or even frozen. Recipe from Shauna Niequist’s Bread and Wine!

Cheesy, bubbly layered chicken enchiladas--so comforting and delicious. This dinner is super easy and can be made ahead or even frozen. Recipe from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine!

I’m not usually one to make recipes I find in books (unless they’re cookbooks, that is) but when I read Shauna Niequist’s Bread and Wine a couple years ago, I knew I HAD to make her friend Annette’s awesome enchilada recipe one day. And one day is here! These enchiladas were gifted to the author as a new baby meal–and having a little one myself, let me just say that I would have LOVED to receive this meal when #BabyVolde was small. What can be better then layered enchiladas and all that ooey, gooey cheese and that creamy verde sauce? Not much! I will say that we weren’t too deprived in our new parenthood exhaustion–we were the lucky recipients of many tasty meals from family and friends, and I also made a ton of freezer meals too. So we were set. But if YOU know someone having a baby soon, consider making this dish!

Cheesy, bubbly layered chicken enchiladas--so comforting and delicious. This dinner is super easy and can be made ahead or even frozen. Recipe from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine!

Normal enchiladas are great, but all that rolling can be sorta fussy sometimes. Though the presentation here is a little messier thanks to a few layers of sauce, cheese, chicken, and tortillas instead of neatly rolled tortillas, the taste is ALL there! One neat trick that makes this version of enchiladas different from others I’ve tried is that Annette (whoever she is) came up with GENIUS idea to dip the tortillas in warm chicken broth before layering them. This extra step helps the enchiladas get super soft but also adds a little extra flava! And can’t we all use that? 🙂

Cheesy, bubbly layered chicken enchiladas--so comforting and delicious. This dinner is super easy and can be made ahead or even frozen. Recipe from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine!

These enchiladas are filling and delicious… a great dish to make with love for your family or others in your life! Shauna Niequist’s whole point in her book is to embrace hospitality for the sake of love, community, and friendship–a messy hospitality of sorts. In my opinion, this recipe is the epitome of that! Hope you enjoy!

one year ago: Copycat Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
two years ago: Cheesy Molasses Chicken with Mushrooms and Homemade Rice a Roni Mix
three years ago: Champorado [Filipino Chocolate Rice Pudding]
four years ago: Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
five years ago: Hunter Fieri’s Chicken Salad
six years ago: Monkey Bars

Annette's Layered Chicken Enchiladas

Servings: 6
Time: 75 minutes
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from Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist

Ingredients:

1 cup sour cream
1 – 28 ounce can green enchilada sauce
2 – 4 ounce cans diced green chilies
1 cup chicken broth
12-15 small corn tortillas
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
2 cups shredded Monterrey jack cheese
chopped cilantro
lime wedges

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray.

In a medium pot, simmer chicken broth until just warm, then remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, stir together sour cream, enchilada sauce, and green chilies to make the sauce. Spread about 1/4 of the sauce on the bottom of the baking pan. Dip tortillas in broth and layer over sauce, to completely fill the bottom of the pan. Tear tortillas if necessary. Top with half of the chicken and a third of the cheese, then repeat: sauce, tortillas in broth, chicken, cheese, sauce. Finish with tortillas in broth, sauce, and cheese.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until bubbly. You can broil for a minute or two at the end to make the cheese extra brown if desired. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving with cilantro and lime wedges.

Recipe can be made up to 24 hours before baking. It’s also a great meal to freeze and bake when ready to eat!

Beef, Main Dishes, Recipes

SRC: Chili Relleno Casserole

February 2, 2014February 23, 2017 Sarah

Finally! Time for another edition of the Secret Recipe Club! We took a break in January, but now we’re back and it feel sooo good. 🙂 I just love being part of this club. It’s fun to get to try out new recipes and get to know new bloggers.This month for SRC, I was assigned to Ilona’s Kitchen. Ilona shares tons of recipes on her blog every month that are family tested and approved. She loves to feed her family new recipes and old classics… a great combination, I think! She’s also loves to shop, bake, and go to the gym. A woman after my own heart!! Well, I run, but you get the idea. 🙂 When perusing her blog, I found quite a few recipes I wanted to make: Blueberry Popovers, Chicken & Spinach Tortilla Bake, and Coconut Tea Cake. The last option sounds AWESOME! She just posted the recipe, otherwise that is definitely what I would have made. But alas, Chili Relleno Casserole it was. And it did not disappoint, even though it’s not the most photogenic recipe ever!

Ilona has about three Chili Relleno recipes on her blog… some have been flops and others have been great. Ilona claimed this was the best of the three, and we found it to be pretty wonderful. It seriously tasted great! I’ve never had a real chili relleno, so I can’t testify to the authenticity [it is a casserole after all], but the flavors are phenomenal. It’s just a simple mix of ground beef and vegetables, topped with eggs, oregano, garlic, tomato sauce, and cheese. What’s not to like? Plus, it’s quick and easy to throw together–perfect for those busy weeknights. Ben actually made the whole dish and it was ready waiting for me one night after work. That must be why I like it so much. 🙂 I have no doubt that we’ll be making this again soon! Thanks, Ilona, for introducing me to this great recipe! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes. 🙂

one year ago: Baked Jalapeno Popper-Ranch Dip
two years ago: Fried Eggs on Pesto-Parmesan Toast
three years ago: Mini Meatloaf

Chili Relleno Casserole

Servings: 8
Time: 40 minutes
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from Ilona’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 green pepper, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cans [4 ounces each] chopped green chilies
4 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 cups shredded mexican blend/taco cheese, divided
8 ounces tomato sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

In a skillet, brown ground beef. Drain fat and then add green pepper. Cook until tender, then stir in oregano, garlic, and chopped green chiles. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk together eggs and milk.

Layer half of the meat and 1/2 cup cheese in prepared baking dish. Top with the rest of the meat and another 1/2 cup cheese. Pour egg mixture on top of everything,

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove and spread tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup of cheese on top and return to oven for 7 minutes.

Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting, then slice into squares to serve and enjoy.

Be sure to check out other recipes from this week’s Secret Recipe Club reveal here:

Chicken, Main Dishes, Recipes

Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chili Sour Cream Sauce

October 16, 2012October 19, 2012 Sarah

So, if you’re on Pinterest, you probably have the same problem as the rest of us: you pin about a kazillion things on all your boards but never actually do any of them. Sigh. In order to remedy this, Lisa at The Splattered Apron has started an every other week linkup called Pinteresting Recipes. This is my first time to participate, and I am so excited!!

I love Pinterest and the ability to find great blogs and new ideas, as well as the obviously ability to save and share things for later. However, I absolute hate the way some people discuss the popular pin in the name/comment section. “Some pinner says…” Then they usually talk about how this is the best or most wonderful thing ever. Ugh. Don’t know why, but that just bugs me. And it kinda makes me want to boycott all pins that have those words attached to them, since they’re somehow tainted. Tainted with what? Popularity? I’m weird. But for this post, I decided to suck it up and try one of those popular pins. Because they must be good if they’re so popular, right?

I chose White Chicken Enchiladas from Joyful Mama’s Kitchen.

Here’s a photo of the original:

The pin of this recipe that I then pinned was labeled as “According to many pinners-THE BEST white chicken enchilada recipe ever!! Easy too.” See? Pet peeve right there! But is it worth the hype?

Here’s how mine turned out.

I must say, these White Chicken Enchiladas were pretty tasty and easy. The best? Well, I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, but they were delicious.

We loved how each bite of these enchiladas was full of flavor: tender shredded chicken and sharp cheddar cheese absolutely drenched in a luscious white sauce made with sour cream and sweet green chilies. The original recipe used all white cheese [Monterey Jack], but when I made these my grocery store was completely out, so I had to improvise. I’m sure they would be awesome either way–cheese is cheese, after all!

Will I make them again? Sure thing. They aren’t healthy or authentic Mexican food, but they do provide a good dose of cheesy comfort food. You can never have too many comfort food recipes. 🙂 So thanks to Pinterest for pointing me to this awesome new recipe and blog. On that note, I’ll close with a link to a post I recently read about Pinterest/blogging/internet etiquette. It’s a great read, so I hope you check it out. 🙂

Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chili Sour Cream Sauce [from Joyful Mama’s Kitchen]
click to print

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
2 cups shredded cheese [Sharp Cheddar or Monterey Jack]
10 soft tortillas [I used wheat]
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
4 ounce can diced green chillies

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, stir together chicken and half the cheese. Divide bewteen tortillas, roll up, and place in pan.

Next, make the sauce. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for one minute. Slowly pour in broth and whisk until smooth, then heat until sauce thickens and begins to bubble. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and chilies.

Pour sauce over enchiladas, then top with the rest of the cheese.

Bake enchiladas for 22 minutes, then broil for a minute or two until cheese becomes brown and bubbly.

Time: 45 minutes [15 minutes active].

Yield: 5 servings.

Recipes, Sides, Vegetables

Aunt Charlotte’s Tex Mex Corn

October 29, 2010December 14, 2015 Sarah

Side dishes are one of those things that I am always unprepared for during meal planning. Sides are hard because I’m not the most skillful at coordinating the timing of meal components. Consequently, our sides are pretty boring–salad, maybe some bread or fruit and I’ll call it a day. I’m a fan of one-dish meals too that combine protein, veggies, and carbs–the less coordination required, the better. The exception to meals with boring sides are when we have company over. Then things can get interesting, and I spend more time planning, shopping, cooking, and experimenting. The following recipe is perfect for company. It can be [mostly] prepared in advance and baked right before mealtime.

My family first had this delectable Tex-Mex Corn on a family vacation. We were visiting my Great Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Cal and were served this dish at dinner one night at their then-home in San Francisco. Though it was made with the unfamiliar ingredients of chilies [probably my first experience with them, ever] and canned corn [I never eat canned veggies], it soon became an often-requested family favorite, and is still going strong, 12 years later.

I made this last weekend during a cooking spree with my mom and sister when I was visiting my family briefly, and as we made it, we realized it hadn’t been served since my parents moved into their new house more than two years ago! We always baked it in an 8×8 pan, which I inherited during the move. After a brief moment of panic realizing the necessary pan was MIA, we discovered that a 10 inch round pan would work just as well. Crisis averted! Well, except for the fact that the recipe had been abandoned for so long. Oh, the travesty! Alas, it has been rediscovered and is here for you all now.

This is not your average corn casserole. There’s just something about the creaminess of the cream cheese [imagine that!] with the slight tang and bite of paprika and chilies, and the unexpected taste of white corn [instead of the more common yellow corn] that does me in. Nothing simple, nothing fancy, but a lot of yum. I could eat almost a whole pan of this myself… and I would, except I was taught to share. And so I will. But you don’t have to! I won’t tell. 🙂

Aunt Charlotte's Tex Mex Corn

Servings: 8
Time: 45 minutes
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Ingredients:

6 ounces cream cheese
2 15-ounce cans white corn, drained
1 4-ounce can chopped green chilies, drained
1/4 cup milk
bread crumbs
paprika
cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 8 by 8 inch baking pan [or a 10 inch round casserole dish] by greasing with cooking spray. In a small pot over medium heat, melt cream cheese and stir in milk until well combined. Mix in corn and chilies. Pour into prepared pan, cover with a thin layer of bread crumbs [if making them from scratch, use about 1-1 1/2 slices of sandwich bread] and a sprinkling of paprika. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned and crispy.

Note:

If preparing in advance, wait until baking time to add the bread crumbs and paprika or it will be soggy.

Question of the Day: What are some family recipes that you want to rescue from their poor, neglected state?

Main Dishes, Recipes, Sauces

Enchilada Sauce

July 27, 2010December 5, 2014 Sarah

My absolute favorite type of food is Mexican. From quesadillas to tacos to burritos to chips & salsa, I love it all. While I almost always in the mood for a dinner out at a local Mexican restaurant, lately, for health and financial reasons I have been recreating restaurant meals at home. This enchilada sauce is phenomenal. It is also very versatile. I’ve made full recipes and halved it, made it with homemade tomato sauce, plain ole tomatoes, and store-bought tomato sauce, and adjusted the spiciness–and even used fresh oregano instead of dried. Feel free to play around and find the balance that works for you! It’s yummy! 🙂

Enchilada Sauce

Servings: about 2 1/2 cups
Time: 10 minutes
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Ingredients:

16 ounces tomato sauce
4 ounces chopped green chilies
1/4-1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder [I’ve been using this Mexican-style chili powder, and using less because it’s spicier.]
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup fresh oregano, or about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:

Using a food processor, puree all ingredients until smooth. Adjust seasonings to taste. Pour in a medium saucepan and heat uncovered until warm. Simmer until ready to use.

To make enchiladas I fill tortillas with cooked and seasoned meat [pork, chicken, ground beef], 1/8-1/4 cup enchilada sauce, a sprinkling of cheddar cheese or cream cheese, as well as beans, rice, salsa, spinach/lettuce, etc. Roll tortillas and place in a greased shallow baking dish. Cover with additional sauce and/or cheese if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until golden and crispy.