Monday, May 6, 2013

Enchiladas....quicker, easier, and endless recipes! (Turkey Enchiladas & Chicken Crack Enchiladas)

Within the past year, my friend Jamie and I made our own salsa verde and salsa verde enchiladas.  They turned out deliciously!  I never realized how easy enchiladas were to make.  I've made them a few times since then, trying different ingredients, different salsas, different cheeses to find out what I liked the best.


Right after Thankgiving, I chopped up left over turkey, added in some carrots, spinach, onions, and garlic.   Daryl and I feasted on post-Thanksgiving turkey veggie enchiladas.  Daryl was on board for the enchiladas train!







Since Cinco de Mayo was approaching and I had all of the ingredients for enchiladas, I was considering different kinds to make.  I asked my friend John if he'd like to join us for Cinco de Mayo.  Last time we had John over, he requested that I make chicken crack.  It suddenly popped in my head that I could combine chicken crack with enchiladas.  It was brilliant!

Who doesn't love the ooey gooey spicy goodness of chicken crack?  If you've not heard of chicken crack, you must make/try some immediately!  It is so good that it's like crack; you become addicted; you can NEVER eat enough!  Num num num!

Those who know me, know that I hate recipes.  I hate precise measuring.  I make almost everything to taste.  Daryl constantly complains that some of his favorite meals never come out the same way twice.  Sometimes if I try to recreate something, I forget what I used the first time around.   Oops!  :)

Here is a quick and easy (mostly accurate) recipe of my Chicken Crack Enchiladas! 


This is your filling for your tortillas.
2 chicken breasts poached. Easier to shred when poached. Shred them up and put them in a mixing bowl.
Add 1 block of softened cream cheese.
Add about 1/4 cup of ranch dressing.
Add about 1/4 cup of blue cheese dressing.
Add about 1/2 a bottle of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce.
Add 4 chopped up green onions.
Mix that all up.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Now you can build your enchiladas.
Get out an oven safe 9 X 13 baking dish.
I used 3 containers of Wholly Guacamole's Salsa for the whole recipe.
Put some (about half a container) salsa on the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish to coat the bottom in a thin layer of juice/salsa.
Put some salsa on a plate to dip your tortillas in to soften them.
I used 12 large flour tortillas.  Feel free to use corn tortillas.  I prefer the taste of the flour tortillas.
Dip your tortilla in the salsa, flip, dip in the other side, getting each side a little damp (makes them easier to roll and then they don't fall apart).
Add 2-3 tablespoons of your buffalo chicken filling.  Enough so that the filling will reach each end of the tortilla once you roll it up.
Roll the tortilla and place in your baking dish.  
I layered them into the baking dish in two rows of 6.
Then add more salsa on top to make sure the tortillas are wet and covered.





Sprinkle cheese on top.  I used swiss and colby jack because that's what we had on hand.  Use whatever kind of cheese you want.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 until the cheese is nice and bubbly on top.

I used a pizza cutter to slice into 3 rows of 5 pieces each.
Eat and enjoy!
It's spicy and delicious!

I also made "Mexican Rice." This again was a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants recipe. I used 1.5 dry cups of Brown Rice that I bought at Earth Fare from the bulk bin. After cooking the rice, I added in a jar of Newman's Own Black Bean & Corn salsa. I also added about 4 cut up green onions.









One of my other passions is SAVING MONEY!  I am an avid couponer and look for the best bang for your buck dinners.   This one was AWESOME!

Here is a cost breakdown of the recipe:
2 chicken breasts - These were 1.99/lb at Harris Teeter
1 block of cream cheese - about $1 at Aldi
Newman's Own Ranch and Blue Cheese dressings were recently on sale at Harris Teeter for $2.50 during HT's triple coupon event, so these were $1 per bottle.
Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce was BOGO (buy one, get one free) a few months ago, so about $1.75 and then I had a $0.75 coupon that doubled, so it cost $0.25 for the whole bottle.
Green Onions were $0.99/bunch at Kroger.
Wholly Salsa was FREE during the last Super Doubles event at Harris Teeter.  The great thing about Wholly Salsa is that it comes fresh.  The containers can be frozen.  When defrosted, the salsa is still super fresh!  Since I use it for cooking I don't worry as much about it being slightly more watery after freezing.
Flour Tortillas were on sale recently using Harris Teeter's weekend evic specials, so those were $0.97 per 10 tortilla package.
Shredded cheese was recently on sale at Harris Teeter for B2G3 (buy 2, get 3 free), so it ended up being $1.33 per package.  I only used 1 whole package  (half swiss, half colby jack).

Total cost was about $7.40.   This was for 15 servings, so approximately $0.50 per serving.


The rice is $1.30/lb at Earth Fare.  I doubt I even used half a pound.  The jar of salsa was purchased during Harris Teeter's triples even, so it was $1.00 for the jar of Black Bean & Corn salsa. 

Total cost of "Mexican Rice" was about $1.65.  I would guess there were about 8 servings, so approximately $0.21 per serving.

Where else could you have enchiladas and rice for $0.71 per serving?  





Eat At Home Adventure

During the past year, Daryl and I have been eating at home less and cooking more. There are a variety of reasons:

1. It's so much cheaper!

2. It's healthier since we know exactly what's going into the recipe.

3. It's an adventure! .

4. More creativity!

5. As we ate out more and more, we'd realize that the food was "eh, ok." Daryl would usually comment that he likes the way I make it better. And I would say something like "Hmmm...it's missing something. Maybe they could've added more of this and less of that?"

6. We recently purchased a new home and I LOVE the kitchen! I finally have a gas stove and prep room and I just feel more inspired to cook at home.

Going forward, my Foodie Review Blog is going to talk more about recipes, quality of ingredients, and food adventures at home! 

My blogspot address is still erindoesfood.blogspot.com, so that still applies! :)

More adventures coming soon!