My favorite cooking magazines are Gourmet and Bon Appetit. I find them to be quite inspiring. The covers are always beautiful and the pages are filled with ideas for seasonal fare. Unfortunately, I do not routinely have the time needed to prepare the terrific recipes I find in these magazines. Even the “Gourmet in 15 minutes” recipes usually take me about an hour and a half to prepare. As a result, I have learned to improvise.
I locate a recipe that looks absolutely fabulous and I create a short-cut to it. Sauces can be purchased and enhanced, trifles can begin with a boxed cake mix, and hard-to-locate items usually have a substitute.
Yesterday I was thumbing through the June 2007 Bon Appetit and I came across a terrific recipe for chicken enchiladas. It appeared that it would take about 2 or 3 hours to prepare if I had the ingredients on hand, which I, of course, did not. I quickly went through the recipe and made adjustments: I substituted the recipe for salsa verde with a purchased variety, skipped the poblano chile roasting technique, and substituted the required Muenster cheese with a spicier pepper jack variety to make up for the missing poblano chile.
I went to the grocery store at 3:30 and was cooking by 4:30. I needed to serve this dish to about 15 family members by 7:00. Tweaking the recipe allowed me the time I needed to prepare this dish along with traditional cheese enchiladas. I served the enchiladas with refried beans,tortilla chips, a lovely green salad and a fruit platter. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
Green Chile Enchiladas
1 cup vegetable oil
18 corn tortillas
4-6 cups green chile salsa, look for a salsa with a mixture of jalapeno chile and tomatillos
4 large chicken breasts, seasoned and baked and shredded
2 cups sour cream
4-6 cups pepper jack cheese, divided (reserve 1/2 cup)
fresh cilantro for garnish
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread 1/2 – 1 cup of the salsa in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a medium skillet on low to medium heat. Cook individual tortillas in oil for about 8 seconds per side. Quickly drain the tortilla and dip it in the salsa. Now, place the tortilla in the casserole and repeat, overlapping the edges of tortillas and covering the bottom of the dish. You will need to add oil to the pan occasionally.
Scatter 1/2 of the chicken on the tortillas, cover with 1 – 2 cups of salsa, place 1 cup of the sour cream in even dollops over the chicken, sprinkle with 1/2 of the cheese and repeat. Cover the top with a layer of tortillas dipped in salsa and sprinkled with reserved cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour or until hot and bubbly.
Enjoy!