Green Chile Enchiladas

Green Chile Enchiladas, Medanales, NM, 2011

I love New Mexico.  I enjoy the pace of life there, the warm people, the spirituality, amazing landscapes...and the freakingly delicious chile!  Now, this word, chile, gets to be confusing in its spelling.  I grew up eating chili, a spicy meat stew.  And various dishes have chili peppers or chilies in them.  All of these spellings work, but in New Mexico it is more common to find chile as the spelling.  Even in New Mexico I've seen chile used as the singular and plural.  Sometimes though the plural form is chiles.

New Mexico's famous green chile peppers are basically Anaheim peppers which have taken on a slightly hotter spiciness from being grown in the Land of Enchantment's desert climate.  I will post sometime how to roast your own chiles, but for this post I'll urge you to use a canned green chile sauce.

• corn tortillas
• olive oil
• boneless chicken meat (cooked)
• 1 large onion (minced)
• 1 small can chopped green chiles
• 1 can of green chili sauce
• OPTIONAL:  1 cup fresh spinach
• OPTIONAL:  1 cup fresh mushrooms
• OPTIONAL:  2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350 F.

Put a thin layer of olive oil in a baking sheet.  Coat each tortilla with oil and place on the baking sheet.  Bake for about 4 minutes until the tortillas are warm and pliable but not baked hard into big tortilla chips!

Mix chopped, cooked chicken meat with minced onion and chopped green chiles. If you wish to add mushrooms, cheese, or fresh spinach, mix those with the chicken, onion, and chiles.

Put a tablespoon of the green chili sauce on a warmed tortilla.  Then put several spoonfuls of the chicken mixture.  Tuck one side of the tortilla under the other to hold the filling and place the side with the seam down into a baking dish.

Continue until you have filled each tortilla and placed in your baking dish.

Top with the remaining green chili sauce, grated cheese (optional), diced tomatoes (optional) or diced red/orange/yellow/green bell pepper (optional).

Cook for 20-30 minutes until heated throughout.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  no
Gluten Free:  no
Mediterranean:  ?
Nightshade Family Free:  no
Paleo:  no
SugarBusters:  no
Sugar Free:  no
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  no
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.