Chili powder awakens the senses and releases endorphins

I have had this rotisserie chicken in my fridge for longer than I would've liked due to the teeth removal and not cooking.  I decided it was finally time to cook it and I've been wanting to make enchiladas for some time and thought they'd be a good cold day meal with the snow and all.  I've tried enchiladas twice in my life before last night and I will say...I didn't like them AT ALL.  I'm not sure why I thought making them would make them better but I figured that as long as I drenched them in cheese they had to be good right?  Since this was my first enchilada making experience, I wanted to make everything from scratch so I decided to make the sauce instead of buying it b/c maybe that's what I didn't like about it before.  Instead of Mexican rice, I decided to make Mexican quinoa just to add some healthy aspect to the meal.

So to start, I gathered ingredients which was so cheap since much of it was canned and I already had the chicken.  These ingredients included:

shredded chicken

garlic

onions

chili powder

tomato paste

green chilies

diced tomatoes

quinoa

chicken stock

cream cheese

sour cream

jalapeño

shredded cheese

salt

rotel

oregano

paprika

corn tortillas

The first thing I made was the sauce b/c it had to simmer for a bit to thicken and cook flavors together.  Plus, it didn't need to be hot to it was ok if it sat in a pot for a bit while making the other stuff.  This process was pretty easy.  To start, I heated some oil and butter in a pot until it melted together.  Then, I added some flour and stirred until smooth and blended together. The chili powder was then added.  I used a whole container of regular red chili powder and mixed that together just until mixed. 

I decided it would be faster to add all the other ingredients into a mixing cup together so I could just dump it all in at once so the chili powder mixture didn't burn and taste bitter.  So in this mixing cup went some chicken stock, tomato paste, cumin, and oregano.  I allowed it to come to a boil and then turned it on low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or so.  I also added salt to taste.  I stirred it occasionally to make sure the bottom didn't burn.  Once it was done, I turned off the heat and just let it sit while making chicken filling.

For the chicken filling, I started with heating olive oil in a pan.  I added chopped onions and jalapeño and let it cook just to release some of the heat.  Then, I added the green chilies and chicken with a little bit of chicken stock and let it cook a bit to dampen.

 Once that mixture was a little warm, I added cream cheese, sour cream, cumin, paprika, and salt and let it heat up until the cream cheese and sour cream melted and mixed the chicken mixture.  Once everything was heated through, I turned the heat off and started making the enchiladas.

I had some issues making the enchiladas at first.  I used corn tortillas and every time I would wrap the chicken, it would break.  This was incredibly frustrating for a bit until I decided to fry the tortillas first for about a minute.  This helped so much and we were well on our way to making enchiladas.  I didn't get a picture of the actual forming process but basically put a tortilla in the pan with a little oil and let it cook for a bit on each side.  Then, spooned about 2-3 spoonfuls of the chicken mixture into the tortilla and rolled up it.  Then placed them in a baking dish until all the chicken mixture was gone.  We eventually made an assembly line where Eric fried the tortillas and I filled and rolled.

After all the tortillas were rolled, I poured the sauce on top and covered the entire thing with cheesy goodness.  The dish went into the oven for about 30 minutes.

While the enchiladas were baking, we started on the quinoa.  Eric decided he wanted to help b/c I didn't feel like mincing garlic or cutting onions so he did that for me :)  So he minced the garlic and chopped onions that went with the already chopped green chilies that I didn't use in the chicken mixture.

Some oil was heated in a pan and the onions and garlic were added to cook for about a minute.  The rest of the ingredients were added and allowed to come to a boil (diced tomatoes, rotel, quinoa, chicken stock, cumin, salt).  The heat was then turned down to medium low and allowed to simmer until the liquid cooked out and the quinoa was done.    

 

The enchiladas came out of the oven about 10 minutes before the quinoa was done which I think was a good thing b/c it allowed it to cool and we didn't burn our mouths digging into it while the cheese was still bubbling.

It was finally time to eat!  After being a little frustrated with the tortilla rolling process, everything came out delicious and was a success.

It's not the prettiest dish but it was really good! I was really hoping there would have been a way to see the layers of the tortilla, filling, sauce, cheese mixture but the sauce and cheese just kind of fell over everything and then it just became a mess of delicious goo.  The sauce got even better after baking.  The flavors developed more and the sweetness of the tomatoes were brought out along with the spice of the chili powder.  It ended up having a good amount of heat without being overbearing and taking over our taste buds.  The cheese was the perfect amount.  The quinoa ended up also being really good.  I think I liked it more than regular Mexican rice and the fact that it's healthier doesn't hurt either.  We added some sour cream to the side and a perfect fork bite was a mix of the enchiladas with quinoa, topped with a little sour cream.  It was a great meal for the weather due to its heat, both temperature and flavor.  We have a lot of leftovers which is ok I think b/c we found out this morning they're really good cold :) YUM!!