One of my favorite Mexican dishes is enchiladas verdes, I absolutely love tomatillos and this is really pretty simple I don’t think you could mess it up, but it definitely doesn’t taste it.
1 lb tomatillos, husks removed
2 Serrano peppers
½ small yellow onion, divided in 2
2 cloves garlic
2 chicken breasts
12 corn tortillas
Bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, diced
¼ cup Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
2-3 tbs olive oil
2 tsp salt
In a medium pot combine ¼ of an onion, 1 clove garlic, 2 tsp salt and the chicken breasts. Add just enough water to cover the chicken, about 3 cups. Boil the chicken until it is cooked through, about 20 minutes then remove from the broth to cool. Once it is cool enough to handle, shred the chicken. Reserve the broth.
In another medium pot combine the husked tomatillos and peppers and add enough water to cover. When picking tomatillos you want to peel back part of the husk and look for a deep green, those will be riper and more flavorful than the lighter green. Boil until the tomatillos turn from a deep green to kind of an army green color. Drain off the liquid and put in a food processor. Add 1 clove garlic, ¼ of an onion and enough of the reserved chicken broth to cover the vegetables. Blend to a thin sauce then season with salt to taste.
Add 2 turns of olive oil to a skillet and set to high heat. Once the oil’s hot, lightly fry the tortillas one by one and set aside on paper towels to drain off any excess oil. Once you run out of oil add a little more and keep going.
Add about ¼ cup of the tomatillo sauce to a small skillet or pot and heat to medium-low. One at a time, add each tortilla to the sauce to get them pliable again. After taking the tortilla out of the sauce, assemble the enchiladas by placing on a plate, adding a small handful of chicken down the center, top with some cilantro and avocado then roll the tortilla up and plate seam side down. Repeat for the rest of the tortillas, one serving is 3 enchiladas. Top each set of enchiladas with the remaining sauce and some cheese.
Serves 4, 530 calories, 28 g fat
I think this turned out pretty well and it really wasn’t too complicated. The sauce is of course what made it.
I also used the boiled onion and chicken broth to make Spanish rice. I make “Spanish rice” a lot, J loves tacos, but this was by far my best attempt. I boiled 2 cups water with 1 cup rice with about 2 tsp of ground cumin and after all the water was absorbed the rice wasn’t done, this happens to me rather frequently, so I added the rest of the chicken broth that I had left over plus I chopped the onions that were boiled in the broth and added about 8-10 rough chopped grape tomatoes. Once all the liquid was boiled off I seasoned with salt and holy smokes this actually tasted like Spanish rice. Big pat on back.
