Chicken Enchilada-like-entities

I am not of any sort of ethnic decent that would qualify me, in any way, to make enchiladas.  Therefore, these must be called "Enchilada-like-entities" much like cheez whiz must be spelled with a "z" for legal reasons.

However....

This is something that I did with chicken leftover from a rotisserie chicken.  (See my post:  If you're going to kill the chicken.... eat the chicken!)

What you'll need:  Some cooked chicken chopped up, a can of black beans, some frozen corn, an onion chopped up, hot sauce, salt, red pepper, chili powder, Mexican cheese blend, tortillas, enchilada sauce.
(Please remember that, as with most every recipe, I mix things up based on the way they taste.  I don't have measurements.  If you don't like things spicy, don't use hot sauce; if you like things really spicy, use lots; if you don't like corn, don't put it in there; if you like jalapenos, use them; put peanut butter in it!  Do what you like!)

Step one:  Chop up your leftover chicken.  (You could use canned too.)

Step Two:  Add chicken, black beans, onion, salt, pepper, hot sauce, a handful or two of the cheese, hot sauce, and corn to a bowl and mix together.

(This is before the black beans but was a better picture.)









Step Three:  Fill the tortillas with the mixture and roll up and place seam down in a glass casserole dish.

Step Four:  Cover the filled tortillas with enchilada sauce.

Step Five:  Cover everything with cheese.

Step Six:  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Your goal here is to heat it up and melt the cheese.











That's all folks!

If you're going to kill the chicken... EAT the chicken

I think everyone has added the pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to their standard "meals for the week" plan.  Maybe it's just me but I don't think so.  I used to get a whole chicken and cook it until I realized that it was often cheaper to buy the finished product.  Costco has a GIANT one, because it's Costco, for $4.99 and Whole Foods routinely has a "meal deal" where you can get a pound of potato salad or macaroni and cheese plus the rotisserie chicken for $7.99.

The point of this is that I have found that after the initial meal of roasted chicken a lot of my friends are just getting rid of the rest of the chicken.  THE HORROR!!

So I'm launching a campaign..... If you're going to buy the chicken... EAT the chicken.

Step One:  Pull the usable chicken off the bones.

The more broke I am, the more meals I can make out of one chicken so after we eat the initial meal I let it cool off and then I pull off all the meat and put it aside.  (As I add posts of recipes I use the extra chicken in, I will add them here.)

Enchiladas

Step Two:  The skin and bones go in the crock pot.

Generally when I do this I am also making soup and/or chicken salad or some other meal that involves veggies so I throw the celery leaves, carrot peals, onion skins in the crock pot too.  This is not necessary but if we are trying to make use of every part of our food we might as well use the veggie scraps too and it helps give a little extra flavor.

Step Three:  Cover it all with water.  I think I usually use about 8-12 cups depending on the size of the chicken.  The less water you use, the richer your stock will be.  You can always add more later.

Step Four:  Boil the heck out of it.  I put it on low in the crock pot overnight or all day long.






Step Five:  Once it has cooked strain the nasty chicken parts and old veggies out.  I like to use a colander with cheese cloth or a loosely woven tea towel over the top of a large bowl or pot.

Here is the leftover in the tea towel.  The good stuff is underneath this carnage.

What you are left with is the yummy stock.

Warning!!  If you taste it now you are going to think something is wrong.  It isn't going to taste like much of anything.  What you've made is stock, not broth.  Broth is, as far as I can figure, seasoned stock.  So if you want it to taste like broth, add salt!

Step Six:  Use this in whatever recipe you would use any other stock or broth.