I love cheese. Cheesy, cheesy cheese. I also love meals that take less than fifteen minutes to make on nights when I have class and Norris is home late from work. This is a recipe that combines those two loves in perfect harmony. It is ridiculously simple, but easy to dress up if the situation warrants it. I don't think you could dress it down much more. So here is what you need to start: a glass baking dish (if I am cooking for a group I use a 9x13, but for just us two, I use the perfect square one), flour tortillas, 2 bags of Mexican blend cheese, a can of white chicken breast, a giant can of enchilada sauce (I use mild because I am a weenie) and one can of chiles (again mild). Most of these ingredients can be found on the Mexican aisle of the grocery store, which, at my Walmart, is the same aisle as the Spaghetti aisle.
Put the shredded cheese in a large glass bowl. If you are feeling ambitious, grate the cheese yourself from a block of classy cheese. On this particular night I just wanted to stuff my face as quickly as possible, so I went for the bagged stuff. I used the Mexican blend, but you could use straight cheddar, or pepper jack, really any cheese that likes to melt.
Drain the chicken and dump it on top of the cheese. Again, in my rush for dinner I used canned chicken, but if you are extremely opposed to chicken in a can, or just particularly like boiling and shredding chicken, I say go for it. You are a better person than I. Really though, in this recipe, the chicken is going to be surrounded by so many other flavors I think it would ultimately be a wasted effort.
To the cheese and the chicken, add the can of chiles, juice and all. This will up the delicious factor considerably.
Time to get dirty! Stick your hands right in the bowl and mix things together thoroughly. Try to break up the chicken as much as possible with your hands, and try to get everything coated with the chile juice. That is what makes it good.
This is what the finished mix should look like: well shredded, well mixed, and ready to be rolled into enchiladas.
Coat the bottom of your glass pan with a thin layer of enchilada sauce. This will help keep the enchiladas from sticking. It won't keep them from sticking entirely, but it will help.
Roll the cheese/chicken/chile mixture into the tortillas one by one and place them in to the pan. They should be set in there snugly against each other so they can't come unrolled in the pan. When I was a little girl I didn't like the chiles, so my mom would put toothpicks in the ones that were plain. I thought of doing this to them all to hold them together, then realized that I was lazy and didn't have any toothpicks anyway.
Coat the rolled up tortillas with enchilada sauce. Use as much or as little as you like. I like my enchiladas saucy and gooey, so I often use more sauce then other people might. This is totally up to you, but I recommend that the tortillas are well covered.
If you have any leftover CCC mix, sprinkle it over the top. If not, or if you don't have enough, coat the top of the sauce-covered tortillas with more shredded cheese (this is why you need two bags). Imagine this coming out of the oven toasty and melted!
Cover the dish with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is brown on top. I did not cook this batch long enough (see my ravenous hunger), but you get the idea about what the cheese will look like. Melty, gooey, delish. Pile the enchiladas on a plate (scooping up as much cheese and sauce as you can) and add a generous dollop of sour cream on top. You could also add guacamole. Or hot sauce. Or all kinds of things. That is the great thing about this recipe. You can really make it your own. You could use beef instead of chicken, or beans, if that's your thing. You could use queso fresca on top, and avocado inside the tortillas. You could make homemade pico de gallo. It all depends how much time you want to spend, or how healthy(ish) you want them to be! So go have fun! Create! Enjoy! EAT!
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