Chicken Enchilada Dinner
When Maggie came over the other night (see post), I made a meal that centered around a whole grilled chicken. The nice thing about grilled chicken is that unless you’ve had a lot of people over for dinner that night, there’s always leftover chicken.
Leftover chicken is like gold. Leftover chicken is what you hope for when you’re preparing the meal. Not that you don’t want people to enjoy what you’ve made for them, but….
Here’s what I did with my gold, I mean, my leftovers. I made Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.
I had flour tortillas in the refrigerator, cream cheese and avocados. I bought jalapeno Monterey Jack cheese at the Fresh n’ Easy market. I love those stores…easy in, easy out and good prices.
First I had to pull all the meat off the leftover chicken bones. (Save the bones….as Julia Child said on her TV show…you know what, maybe it was ‘Save the Liver” on the SNL parody of Julia, yeah, that’s what it was). This is to make chicken stock. Anyhow, as you de-bone the chicken, put the bones in a small pot and fill up about halfway with water. Throw in a carrot, onion slice, celery stalk, bay leaf, a couple of peppercorns and a little salt. Cook on low—just a simmer—for about an hour and then cool and strain. Freeze in cup sized containers and you’ve got liquid gold in the freezer!
I chopped the meat fairly small and had about 2 ½ cups of meat which I combined with a package and a third of cream cheese. Then I minced half of a medium onion and sautted it briefly in butter and added that to the meat. I grated about 8 ounces of Jack cheese and mixed half of that in the meat mixture. And then mashed it all together.
You can use your tortillas, the way they come. But they’re so much tastier if you fry them. Just one large skillet, some flavorless oil with a high smoke point and a package of tortillas. Pour about ½ inch of oil in the hot skillet, and when the oil looks wavy, gently slip in a tortilla (so you don’t splash yourself). Fry briefly on both side until you get a little color and some blisters. Then pull out with tongs and drain on paper towels.
Sauteed Tortillas
Next, stack the tortillas and start to roll them like cigarettes with a couple of spoonfuls on filling spread on each one before you roll it up. Place side by side in a baking dish large enough to hold them. Sprinkle the rest of the Jack cheese on top and spoon either salsa or green chile enchilada sauce over the top. Like the picture.
unbaked enchiladas with salsa on top
I cover the dish with foil for the first 20 minutes at 350 degrees and then take the foil off for the last 10-15 minutes. Cover the enchiladas up with foil to sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Oh, and these are great with fresh guacamole.
Guacamole
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