Easy from scratch chicken enchiladas
Deliciously rich and topped with plenty of cheese, these enchiladas are perfect for when you want a good old comforting hearty meal at the end of the day. These enchiladas are also made in a more traditional way while ensuring that the recipe stays are simple as can be.
Equipment
- 17 cm by 30 cm oven dish or similar size oven dish
Ingredients
Parts needed for assembling your enchiladas
- 10 homemade tortillas wheat
- 200 gr cheese grated
- enchilada sauce see below
- chicken enchilada filling see below
Ingredients for your enchilada sauce
- 30 gr butter
- 40 gr plain flour
- 4 tsp chilli powder 6 tsp if you like it spicy
- 1 medium onion grated
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp cocoa powder pure & unsweetened
- 500 ml chicken stock
Ingredients needed for your chicken enchilada filling
- 300 gr leftover chicken use fresh if you prefer
- 500 gr tomato passata or diced tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- salt to taste
Instructions
Enchilada sauce
- Add butter to a saucepan and let melt on medium heat. Once the butter is completely melted, add in the grated onion and garlic. Let them cook for about a minute or two to soften up and take the sharpness off.
- Add the flour, chilli, cumin, and cocoa powder to the pan and stir until well combined. Then while continuing to stir, let it cook for about a minute. Cook off the flour and let it brown a bit to enhance the flavours.
- Slowly add the chicken stock to the saucepan while stirring continuously to avoid any lumps and ensure proper thickening of the sauce. I prefer to use a whisk when I'm adding water to any kind of roux, since it makes creating a smooth sauce so much easier. (a roux is a mixture of fat and flour to thicken sauces)
- Once all the stock is incorporated and you have created your sauce. Salt it to taste and leave it to boil for a minute or five.
- After which, you can pour half of it into a glass jar and save it for later. It will keep for a week in the fridge.
- The other half you will use for your chicken enchiladas today.
- If you prefer, you can half the recipe so you won't have extra. But we so enjoy this sauce that I always make this amount. So we can enjoy the other half of the sauce with our other meals during the week.
Chicken enchilada filling
- Dice your onions and fry them in a little olive oil in a saucepan until they soften.
- Add your cumin powder to the pan and let it fry for half a minute or so to boost the flavour.
- Shred your leftover chicken and grate your garlic, then add them to the onions. If you're using fresh diced chicken, then I recommend frying them until they're cooked through.
- Pour in the tomato passata or the diced tomatoes, the oregano and if you want it extra spicy the chilli, stir and bring to a boil.
- Leave to simmer for 5 minutes while you prepare the wheat tortillas unless you've already prepared them ahead of time.
Assemble your enchiladas
- Spread out half of your enchilada sauce onto the bottom of your oven dish.
- Fill your tortillas with about two big scoops of your chicken filling, then roll up and while holding them carefully on the sides, place them on top of the sauce into the baking dish.
- Repeat the filling and rolling of your tortillas until you've filled the entire oven dish.
- Spread out the other half of your enchilada sauce on the top of your filled tortillas and sprinkle them with cheese.
- Grill them in the oven on high until they are nice and golden brown. If you don't have a grill function on your oven, you can bake them in the oven at 210 C for 20 minutes or until golden and brown.
- You can serve your homemade enchiladas with your leftover enchilada sauce if you want some extra spice.
Notes
If you want to make a vegetarian version you can replace the chicken with some veggies, beans, mushrooms, or a combination of these.
Also, we love the leftover enchilada sauce on our sandwiches and as a condiment during other meals.