Give me all the Cheese, Chicken Enchiladas
Time to Prepare: Prep ~ 15 minutes Bake: 20 minutes
My Taste of Home recipes scored again with this one. I wanted something easy but full of flavor and these enchiladas hit all the marks. This was easy for us. There was just a bit of waiting while things happened and depending on what you choose to buy, tasty customizations can be done each time you make it as well.
Ingredients
2 cups of chopped chicken
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup onion
8 oz cream cheese
1 jar of salsa
8 flour tortillas (6 in)
1/4 cup milk
~12 oz of a melting cheese (I’ll explain later)
Preheat your oven to 350 F
If you bought raw chicken, cook this thoroughly and season as desired. Chop into cubes or close to it when cooked
Chop the peppers and onions while waiting on the chicken to cook
Add the chicken, the onions, the peppers and about 1/2 cup of salsa into a pot and add the cream cheese. We went with a super hot salsa to give this more of a kick. You can pick any type of salsa you want!
Stir on medium to low heat until the cheese melts and this becomes a gooey mess of cheese and fillings
Meanwhile, in another pan, add the milk and as much cheese as you want of your melting cheese. We used monetary jack for about 12 oz mixed with a white cheddar. On low heat, let the cheese melt and mix with the milk to make a thicker creamier sauce. The original recipe wanted this to be Velveeta but we opted for using a real cheese instead.
Take a 12 x 8 or close enough baking dish and lightly grease it
Fill the tortillas and fold over the center. Place them seam side down in the dish
Cover with the melting cheese
Bake for about 20 minutes or until it really seems heated. The cheese will be browning on top. If you use Velveeta, it will stay more liquid
Pour the left over salsa on top as desired
Afterthoughts
Using the real cheese was a good decision as it was a much fuller taste and creamier rich taste and mixing cheese types worked well. We can control the taste this way instead of just the substitute cheese that has a more processed taste. Cooking the chicken instead of buying precooked frozen chopped chicken also was a great choice as we could add all the spices we wanted, which brought a bit more kick since we used cumin and more with it. The enchiladas were creamy, satisfying and bursting with flavors. You’d think all that cheese everywhere would dull it but it was balanced well with the salsa and peppers inside. The tortillas were a nice crisp from the time in the oven and all of this worked great. A fast and easy way to feed a family that will get messy but put a smile on anyone’s face.
