Simple Joys

A Lifestyle Blog

8.09.2012

Recipe: Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas

We all do it. We hop on Pinterest to browse and end up spending hours pinning delicious recipes in hopes of making them someday. I will be the first to raise my hand in guilt. I have hundreds of recipes pinned (297 to be exact) that I have every intention of recreating.

Sunday, I felt like living on the edge, so I  went looking through my recipe board on Pinterest for a new dish to make for my family. (I was really living on the edge here! Ha!) I came across this Chicken & Avocado Enchilada Recipe and had everything in my fridge to make it. Go me! 

Any time I am going to make a recipe I always read through the comments to see what alterations I should make to the recipe. You can find some really helpful tips reading through the comments. I made very few alterations to this recipe. I did get lazy at the end and didn't make it look as pretty as her pictures.

This recipe was a HUGE hit with my family. Oscar gobbled his down before I could finish making my plate. That boy was hungry and was not waiting on anyone! I was surprised by how lite this meal was. I didn't feel  guilty eating any of it. This recipe will definitely be added to my monthly menus. 

I always read recipes and they never give suggestions on what to serve the main dish with. So I figured I would give you some suggestions. I served our enchiladas with black beans. I didn't have any Spanish Rice, but if I had, we would have had it also. You could also do a Mexican Corn Salad as another side. 

You can view Ali's original recipe by clicking the link above or just scroll down for the entire recipe as well as the alterations I made. They are in BOLD ITALICS.

Excuse this poorly taken photo. I am no photographer. 
Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas

Delicious chicken enchiladas with an irresistible avocado cream sauce!

Ingredients

Enchilada Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 poblano peppers, stemmed and thinly sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced (remove seeds for less heat)
8-10 (6-inch) flour tortillas
4 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used chicken breast)
2-3 cups Monterrey Jack cheese
optional garnish: fresh cilantro, sour cream, and/or shredded cheese

Avocado Cream Sauce Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 California avocados, peeled and pitted
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of one lime

To Make The Enchiladas:

Prepare the "Avocado Cream Sauce" as listed below. Preheat the oven to 375? F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch
baking dish.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, poblano and jalapeno, and saute for 5-6 minutes until the onions are cooked and translucent. Remove from heat.

To assemble the enchiladas, place a tortilla on a flat surface. Spread a tablespoon or two of the avocado
sauce down the middle of the tortilla. Then layer on some of the vegetable mixture, shredded chicken and cheese. Carefully roll the tortilla and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Drizzle the top with about half of the remaining avocado cream sauce, then cover the dish with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, or until tortillas are heated through and begin to harden. (I used the remainder of the sauce on top because they looked dry and then smothered the top of the sauce with my remaining Monterrey Jack cheese. They still tasted amazing.)

Remove from the oven, then serve individual enchiladas drizzled with the remainder of the avocado cream sauce. You can also garnish with additional cilantro, cheese, and/or sour cream.

To Make Avocado Cream Sauce:

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the flour, whisking until golden and bubbly, about 2-3 minutes. Slowly whisk the broth into the flour mixture. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the sour cream, cumin, salt, garlic powder and pepper, whisking if necessary to remove any lumps. Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a blender or food processor.

Add avocados, cilantro and lime juice, and pulse until smooth and well-blended. (Be very careful blending hot liquids -- the heat will expand! So be sure to remove the lid occasionally so that the heat can escape.)

Season with additional salt or pepper if needed. (I recommend doing this, it was a bit bland.)

Ali’s Tip: If you are cooking the chicken for this recipe specifically (and not using leftovers or a rotisserie chicken, as I often do!), I would recommend seasoning the chicken with a few pinches of chili powder and cumin in addition to the salt and pepper.  It will give some great extra flavor! (I used chicken breast so the meat was a bit dry after shredding so I added about 1/4 cup of chicken broth to the shredded chicken along with the seasonings she suggested. This chicken could be used in a number of recipes or added on top of a salad. It was that delish!)

In case my photo wasn't appetizing enough, this is the picture I pinned that caught my attention. It looks much more delicious than mine. :)

[Source]

If you decide to give this recipe a try, come back and tell me what your thoughts and any alterations you made to it. 

1 comment:

  1. We made this for our last Pinterest party - everyone loved it! I used a serrano pepper instead of whatever it called for (I think I used a little bit different recipe). So good!

    ReplyDelete

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