My birthday was this past weekend, and for some reason I was craving enchiladas. I found a recipe by Tyler Florence on foodnetwork.com for green chile enchiladas and decided to try it out.

Roasted Green Chile-Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe was an interesting one to put together–I’ve never made enchiladas or salsa and never worked with a few ingredients used here, but I think they came out great.

The tomatillo salsa was pretty simple to put together. Just poach tomatillos, an onion, and jalapeño peppers and puree in a blender with cilantro, cumin, lime juice, and salt. While the fruits/veggies were poaching, I was roasting and dicing my poblano peppers (which I’ll get to later) and happened to taste a piece. Poblanos are said to be mild, but for whatever reason I found these to be VERY spicy! They tasted like a green pepper but then had a creeping heat that came at the end of the bite. Based on the amount of heat I knew would be in the filling, I decided to only add one of the poached jalapeños to the final salsa verde. The cilantro and lime juice added a really bright citrus-y bite to the salsa which was interesting, but I liked.

Roasting the poblano peppers was an interesting undertaking: as detailed in the recipe below, I put them directly onto my gas burner and basically burned the skins. I’d say it took about 5 minutes per pepper, which have to be watched and turned during this time. After roasting, the burnt skin easily slides off, leaving a sort of slimy, pliable pepper. I rinsed mine off in the sink to make sure all the burnt bits were off, then cored, seeded, and diced them. I used probably 2/3 of the diced peppers in the filling due to the heat.

Making the filling was also very straightforward, but one note is that in the future I would definitely reduce the amount of chicken stock from 4 cups; I’d say that half that would probably be sufficient. With the 4 cups, I had to add cornstarch to try and thicken the stuff and it was still quite watery and messy when putting together the enchiladas. I also like my Mexican food cheesy (I’m such a purist, I know), so I would increase the amount of Monterey Jack called for.

Putting together the enchiladas found me elbow deep in tomatillo salsa. I left the salsa in the blender and dipped large flour tortillas (I couldn’t find large corn ones, and apparently the corn tortillas need to be softened in a hot skillet with oil to make them pliable for folding) in to moisten them. I then laid them out on a cutting board and added a ladle of filling and a small sprinkle of cheese, rolled them and quickly transferred them to a baking dish. I could only fit 6 of the large flour tortillas in a dish, so I had to make two batches. Each one got a generous topping of leftover salsa and a sprinkling of cheese:

Pan of enchiladas

The finished product was fantastic, but I got complaints from both my brother and mom about the spiciness. I didn’t have any sour cream or guac around to serve them with, but I imagine the sour cream would have helped cut the heat. I just ate mine with a glass of milk.

Roasted Green Chile-Chicken Enchiladas

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Prep Time: 55 min
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 55 min

Level: Intermediate
Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

Salsa Verde:
* 12 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
* 2 jalapeño peppers, stemmed
* 1 onion, quartered
* Splash white vinegar
* Water
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
* 2 limes, juiced
* Salt
Filling:
* 3 poblano peppers
* Extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 onion, sliced
* 3 garlic cloves, chopped
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 4 cups canned chicken stock
* 1 deli roasted chicken, about 3 pounds, boned, meat shredded
* Leaves from 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 12 large corn tortillas
* 1/2 pound Monterey jack cheese, shredded
* Guacamole
* 1 pint sour cream

Directions

Make the salsa: Put the tomatillos, jalapenos, and onion in a saucepan with the vinegar and water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and poach until the tomatillos are soft, about 10 minutes. Drain. Put the vegetables in a blender, add the cumin, and puree. Add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt, and pulse to combine. Set aside.

Meanwhile, place the poblano peppers directly over the flame on a gas stove and cook, turning with tongs, until the skin is charred and blackened. (Or, if you have an electric stove, put the chiles on a baking sheet and broil, turning with tongs, until the skin is blackened.) Skin the peppers; then seed, core, and dice them.

Heat a 2-count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened and caramelized, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the cumin and cook 1 minute. Then sprinkle on the flour and cook, stirring, 1 more minute. Gradually pour in the stock, stirring constantly. Bring to a simmer, stirring to make sure the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan; the liquid will thicken. Fold in the chicken, diced peppers, and cilantro, and season well with salt and pepper.

To assemble the dish: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Get your self a large baking dish. Dip a tortilla into the tomatilla salsa and put it on a cutting board. Put a big scoop of the chicken mixture in the center, sprinkle with a little of the cheese, and roll the tortilla like a cigar to enclose the filling. Use a spatula to place it seam side down in the baking dish. Continue to fill all of the tortillas and put them in the baking dish. Pour the remaining tomatilla salsa over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Serve hot with guacamole and sour creamsa