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Basic Chicken Enchiladas

Who doesn't love a big plate of chicken enchiladas? Basic, staple ingredients yield a delicious, made from scratch, enchilada sauce! 
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 55 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes
Servings 6 Servings

Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 3 boneless chicken breasts or 5 boneless thighs 2 pounds
  • 5 cups of water
  • Salt

For the Enchilada Sauce: (Ranchero Sauce)

  • 2 ancho chile peppers stems and seeds removed
  • 8-9 guajillo chiles stems and seeds removed
  • 4-6 chile de arbol peppers optional
  • 1 large Roma tomato sliced in half
  • ½  white onion quartered
  • 3 large cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup avocado or olive oil
  • 1   teaspoon Mexican oregano
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp peppercorns
  • 3-4   teaspoons Knorr chicken bouillon optional
  • 4 cups chicken broth from poaching the chicken
  • Salt to taste

You Will Also Need:

  • 16 corn tortillas
  • avocado or canola oil
  • 8 oz  Monterey Jack or Chihuahua cheese shredded
  • 8 oz queso fresco or cotija crumbled fine
  • Shredded lettuce thinly sliced onion, sliced tomato and sliced jalapeño
  • thin sliced onion
  • thin sliced tomato
  • Mexican crema
  • Avocado slices

Instructions

Directions:

  • Add the chicken to a sauce pan and cover with 5 cups of water. Season with salt, bring to a boil, reduce heat and poach for 45 to 50 minutes or until tender and easy to pull apart with a fork. Remove chicken and shred while still warm, cover and set aside. Strain the broth and reserve for making enchilada sauce.
  • Combine the dried chiles, tomato, onion and garlic in a medium sauce pan. Drizzle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and heat to medium. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring often. Cover with 4 cups of broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until tomatoes are tender and peppers are soft and start to turn red. Let sit for 10 minutes. Using tongs transfer all the solids to blender first. Carefully pour in all the broth from pan. Add oregano, cumin, peppercorns and bouillon. Pour in another 1- 1 1/2 cups of broth(if available). If not use water. Blend on high until smooth, taste for salt.
  • In the pan you cooked the peppers in, add 2 tablespoons of oil and preheat on medium for 2 minutes. Strain the sauce through a wire strain directly into the pot with hot oil. If using a power blender, like a Vitamix, no need to strain. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and continue cooking for 15-20 minutes.
  • For Family-Style: In a 13×9 pan, spread 1 cup of enchilada sauce evenly to cover the bottom of the pan, set aside. In a skillet, preheat 1/2 cup of oil to medium heat for 3-4 minutes.  When oil is hot, fry the tortillas for 30 seconds per side, just to soften them. Stack on to a plate, cover with foil paper.
  • In a bowl, combine the shredded chicken breast with ½ cup of enchilada sauce, stir well to combine.  Now you are ready to start building your enchiladas. Take one tortilla and fill with about 2 tablespoons of chicken, roll shut to resemble a flute. Lay the enchiladas in the baking pan with the sauce already in it. Once you have filled and rolled them all, top with the remaining sauce and jack or chihuahua cheese. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Serve and garnish with queso cotija, onion, avocado, crema and fresh toppings!
  • For Serving Individual plates. Make sure your sauce and chicken are warm if you are serving individually. Fry, fill and roll the enchiladas and place them onto individual plates.  Ladle a generous amount of warm sauce on top, sprinkle on melting cheese and  heat to melt in the microwave for less than a minute. Garnish with cotija cheese and with any of the fresh garnishes listed. This was how my Mom served them at home.

Notes

This is a basic chile sauce that can be used for many recipes. Recipes, such as flautas ahogadas, chiles rellenos and even huevos rancheros! If you like, you could bump up the heat with adding more chile de arbol, or not. Adding cumin is optional. 
If you can't find ancho peppers, you can use all guajillo peppers. And vise versa. An all ancho pepper enchilada sauce is delicious! It may just be slightly darker in color.
 
For more traditional plated enchiladas rojas, dip corn tortillas in sauce, then fry in shallow preheated oil to sear the sauce onto each side of tortilla. Transfer to a flat surface and fill with chicken. Carefully roll as tight as you can(It will be hot!) and transfer to serving plate. Garnish with crumbled queso fresco or cotija. Top with fresh topping like onion, lettuce, tomato, crema, fried potatoes with carrots in sauce! To avoid burning my fingers, I fill warmed corn tortillas with chicken filling and then I lightly fry the rolled enchiladas. Once they start to firm up, I add some of the red enchilada sauce. I am basically searing the sauce and making sure the enchiladas are coated well. Plate right away. Garnish to your liking.