Chicken Enchiladas with Cream Cheese Sauce
This is from a good friend and comes highly recommended. This takes a little bit of time to ensure you have good and juicy chicken and a nice broth to use not only in this recipe, but in other dishes as well. On my to cook list for sure.
Ingredients
- 8-10 flour tortillas
- 250 grams Cream cheese, one package, softened, (8 oz)
- 1-2 cans diced chilies, (4 oz cans)
- 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded, see Step 1 through 5
- 3 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder, if using Thai chili powder, ¼ teaspoon
- salt and pepper, as desired
- fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish
Instructions
- For the chicken, you can use thighs, legs and thighs (quarters separated), or breasts. I would lean towards the plus side and go with 3-4 quarters or 4 breasts, no one will complain if you use more chicken. Once you make this, then just make a note as to how much chicken you used. Not only are you going to make tender and juicy chicken, you are going to make the broth you need for this recipe as well. Broth can be simply starting with water, or you can flavor that up by adding a chopped up carrot, onion, celery, and some black peppercorns, any or all work fine.
- In a large pot, add the chicken pieces. Add about 6 cups of water. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce to a medium simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about 20-30 minutes. Cut into a piece to check.
- When the chicken is cooked, simply turn off the heat and move the pot to an unused burner AND leave the chicken in the pot. The chicken will continue to cook a bit until the broth cools off, so a nearly done piece of chicken will be tender and juicy.
- Once the broth is at room temperature, remove the chicken and shred that. Goal is 3 cups shredded, if you are a little over that, perfectly fine.
- Pour the broth through a strainer, reserve 2 cups of broth for this recipe, and store the rest in the fridge for other uses, such as making rice.
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F) and get out a 9x13 or 7x11 baking dish. I will clarify the size when I make this.
- In a mixing bowl, add the cream cheese, chicken, 1 cup of shredded cheese, lime juice, cumin, and chili powder. Mix together until combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste and as desired.
- Lay a tortilla on the counter, add 2-3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture, roll and place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat until all the chicken mixture is used.
- In a pan, melt the butter then whisk in the flour, continue whisking until the roux turns golden brown, about 2-3 minutes, and season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Slowly whisk in the chicken broth the other half of the cream cheese, and the diced chilies. Continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and pour evenly over the enchiladas.
- Top with the remaining Cheddar cheese and bake for 22-25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Top with chopped cilantro.
- Serve with side dishes of your choice (refried beans and rice will be my choice).
Notes
Cheddar cheese will run about 270 Baht for 1½ blocks. The Cream cheese is about 140 Baht. The chicken, figure 1 kilo of quarters at 52 Baht. For 4 servings, this is about $3.61 per serving.
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