Otherwise, follow my delicious, Trader Jose-inspired version of this fabulous dish. Tonight I made it at Laurie and Derrick's house to try and impress Laurie's brothers Jack and Jay. We were going to do a whole "bachelorette" thing and see which brother I chose after dinner. Jay didn't show up so I guess I'll choose Jack. He's my half plus 7 so I think it'll work out (when determining if someone is old enough to date, they must be at least half your age, plus 7).
Here are the delicious ingredients you need to pick up from the Trader Jose's:
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Green Pepper
1 Big Red Onion
1lb Chicken Breast
1-2 Packages of Tortillas (they have delicious habanero lime tortillas if you want an extra kick)
1 Bottle Enchilada Sauce
1 Package Taco Seasoning (also garlic powder and cumin if you don't have them)
1 Bottle Cowboy Caviar Salsa
1 Bottle Hatch Valley Salsa
1 Block of Pepper Jack Cheese (Jack will feel like you thought about him when you make these with cheese named after him)
2 Cans Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes
Sour Cream and avocados for "garnish"**
**by "garnish" I obviously mean mass consumption.
Now the beauty of these bad boys is that you can make them and then throw them in the refrigerator until about 30 minutes before dinner time. You can impress your mom with a clean kitchen before she even comes home and then feed her a delicious meal. This is a great way to weasel your way further into that will (pro tip! put sticky notes with your name under objects around your parents house that you want It'll save you from arguing with your siblings in the future).
OK Step 1:
Find a large, non-stick pan that'll fit all your chicken titties. Also snoop around the spice cabinet and pull out anything that goes in Mexican food (pro tip! If you're not sure what goes in Mexican food, smell it. Does it smell like a delicious Mexican dish? Pull it. Does it smell like a delicious Italian dish? Leave it in the drawer. That's oregano.).
Pro tip! If the label on the spice bottle is in Spanish, it's probably good in your enchiladas
Step 1.2:
Tenderize the chicken breasts. It might be difficult to find something to tenderize the meat with because you might not have state of the art kitchen equipment like my mother does:
Even I own an actual meat tenderizer.
Step 1.3:
Next, put some olive oil in the pan and turn on the burner to medium heat. Put salt and pepper on one side of the chicken boobs. I guess I might have put garlic in the pan too. Who knows though. Put the salt and peppered part of the chicken down in the pan. Once they're down, put the spices on the other side of the chicken. Once the chicken has cooked half way though, turn them over. Once they're cooked through, remove them and set them aside on a cutting board or plate to cool.
This was my best chicken cooking maybe ever.
Step 2:
As the chicken was cooking, you should have probably been cutting up the pepper and onion. If not, do that now. Throw the onion and pepper into the pan with all those delicious spicy chicken juices. Maybe add some more spices if you're feeling sassy. Once the peppers and onions have softened a bit, add about 1/2 of the jar of cowboy caviar. Let it all simmer together until it looks something like this:
Step 3:
Since the chickens are cool now (cool chick), cut them into bite-sized chunks and add them to the delicious mixture. I like to pull the chicken apart but I'm small and dainty and fragile so sometimes the chicken is too hot to do that.
You will note that this picture should be horizontal. Formatting it has been somewhat annoying and therefore I will save my formatting stress for my dissertation and not this amazing food blog.
Once my uncle was making a cold salad. He put all the ingredients together and said "Now we put them in the fridge and let them mate." He's hilarious. That's what we'll do with the chicken and peppers and onions (only in a pan instead of the fridge), and we'll also add them fire roasted tomatoes. Here's a pic of them mating in the pan:
I'd prefer this picture also be horizontal too. Please just tilt your head.
Step 5:
Put the enchilada sauce in a 9x13" pan. Slide your tortillas in the sauce and place filling in the tortilla, add a little cheese, and roll it over. At this point your dog should be standing next to you waiting for something to fall out. I dropped some chicken on the floor tonight and I'm pretty sure I heard Maebe say "this is the moment I've been waiting for."
Oh now a picture gets horizontal! Whatever, blogspot. You're already dead to me.
Step 6:
Do this until you put all the filling in all the tortillas. You can then cover it all with more enchilada sauce and some cheese. At this point you can put it in the oven at 425 for like 30 minutes or however long it takes for the cheese to look all melty.
Step 7:
Here's a fun side dish! Instead of rice, take the remaining cowboy caviar and mix it with some 3rd world-destroying quinoa and let it cool. Not only does quinoa destroy certain impoverished countries, it's also a power food and looks delicious.
But like why? Why can these pictures not post horizontally? What did I do?
Serve the enchiladas with your mated quinoa salad and impress your friend's little brother! Pro tip! Instead of serving one whole enchilada, serve half of two enchiladas side by side for easier service.*
*using three forms of the word "serve" in one sentence? Bold move, Alison.
*using three forms of the word "serve" in one sentence? Bold move, Alison.
**Good dinner talking point: Where would you put sticky notes in your parents' house?
Delicious Level: 5/5 Noms (om nom nom nom nom nom)
Difficulty Level: I find them to be easy to cook but that's just because I've done it about 15 times now.
Lesson Learned: Put sticky note under the hippo sculpture in the driveway. That's definitely mine.
Here's to eatin' good and eatin' local! Cheers and uff-da!
