Enchilada Mayhem!

Me encanta la comida Mexicana!!! 

Which means, Mom... I love Mexican food :) well minus the mom part. Thank God I married a man with a wonderful family who knows there stuff when it comes to cooking the Hispanic yumminess! When we were out in California for our wedding reception, my mother in love decided to hand make enchiladas and tamales! And guess who was so lucky to be recruited for that fun day of cooking... not me! Lol I kid I kid. I was right there through all the saucing and rolling and panning! Good! So tonight in hopes of one day being able to cook as good as them I am trying my hand in the Enchilada business... solo... alone... by myself, well with the hubby too. Heeeere we go!

Enchilada Sauce:

                                                   3 Tablespoons          Chili Powder

                                                   1 Tablespoon            Sorghum (or alternative glueten free) flour

                                                   1 teaspoon                Cocoa powder

                                                   1 clove                      Garlic

                                                   1/4 cup                     Onion Minced

                                                   1 teaspoon                Oregano

                                                   1 cups                       H2O

                                                   1 cup                        Chicken Stock (or another cup water for vegan)

                                                   1 8 oz can                 Tomato Sauce

Sweat the garlic in a hot pan, large enough to hold the 3 cups of liquid you'll be using. Sweat the onion and then add in the garlic until it is aromatic and then add your chili powder. DON'T TAKE DEEP BREATHS OVER THE PAN. You will literally burn your throat. You're enhancing the chilies in the powder by dry heating them in the oil.  

Add your chicken stock, water, tomato sauce and oregano and bring to a boil. Once at a boil reduce to a simmer and let the sauce reduce until it reaches the consistency you desire. Some people like there sauce a little more think/runny than normal. I let mine reduce until it was like velvet running off the spoon. Not globby and not like water... somewhere in between. I know, I'm awesome at helping you figure out the right consistency! Score :)

Please feel free to NOT tell me how to make your own tomato sauce. I know the ingredients but honestly I'm feeling a little lazy tonight :) if you wish to make your own from scratch please do! And if you don't feel like making anything that feel free to go to the store and buy a wonderfully large can of Enchilada sauce and warm it up on the stove top. Just an FYI though, all enchilada sauces how flour in them so if you are trying to do gluten free I would recommend making your own.

Enchiladas:

                                                           1 each                 Onion small dice

                                                           1 can                   Black olives minced (optional)

                                                           2 #                       Shredded Chicken 

                                                          12 each                Corn tortillas

                                                           3 1/2 cups           Enchilada sauce

                                                           1 cup                    Daiya Cheese 

Start off by placing a pan on the stove top with enough oil in it to sip your corn tortillas. I would say somewhere around 1/4 to 1/2 cup of oil. You choose what kind of oil you want, I'm lame and use Canola oil. Sue me, it's cheap and I'm broke! 

Set your tortillas off to the side and get a pan full of the enchilada sauce you just made (warmed up). I prefer to use a pie pan, I like when you put round things inside round things... square just doesn't cut it for me. Dip the front and back of the tortillas in the enchilada sauce and place them in the pan. Put a decent amount of chicken in them and fold them over. Make sure you have enough enchilada sauce on your tortillas that once you close them they stay shut, or else you just have lame tacos at the end. Not cool. 

Continue doing this until your pan/s is/are full. You can either put your cheese on the inside and top or just the top, same with the onions and olives. I chose to put the onions and olives inside AS WELL AS on top. Whoa, take that Chuck Norris.

I'm trying to figure out how to get videos from my camera onto YouTube so ya'll have the privilege (ha) of watching me cook live. 

Oh completely not relevant to this post, someone "informed" me yesterday that ya'll was spelled y'all and not ya'll. Really?!?! Technically it shouldn't even be a word because it's lazy talk so who cares how it's spelled? Apparently not me because I will continue saying ya'll and spelling it that was also!

Annnd back to the post! Once everything is assembled, place it in your pre-heated oven, which is 350 in case you haven't ever read the back of a brownie box before, and bake them for oh maybe 20 minutes. You choose. Everything is already cooked so you might be in a hurry and don't mind flimsy tortillas or you might not be and want crunchy taco styled tortillas. Either way, you rock! I did 20 or was it 15 I don't remember. But I did cook them!

Here is a picture break down of how it went:

Start by "softening" your corn tortillas in hot oil

Set up you station to produce the pan of enchiladas: Enchilada sauce, softened tortillas, toppings/stuffing and the pan you're going to put them in.

Dip the softened tortilla in the sauce on both sides and wipe excess sauce off.

Place the tortillas in the pan and stuff them. You can do the closed sides up or down. I do mine up. And the end result....

Bon Apatite! Apatita Bueno! Good Eats!