Green Chicken Enchiladas
Some foods are so simple and obvious and delicious that you want to eat them all the time. These foods make so much sense that you think to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of this?” or “Why haven’t I been cooking this all of my life?” I sometimes think of them as duh foods.
Avocado toast is a perfect example. Whether topped singly or in combination with olive oil, lime juice, red pepper flakes, sea salt and pepper, everything bagel seasoning, za’atar, or anything else, mashed avocado on crunchy bread is one of these foods. Easy, simple, delicious. It’s just so obvious and makes so much sense.
Fresh, late summer figs served with feta cheese is another duh food. There’s nothing at all complicated about it, but the flavors are perfect together. The sweetness of the figs and the saltiness of feta are a match made in heaven. I was thrilled when I tasted them paired together.
I have been making Pollo Verde or Green Chicken since I was a little kid. Served over a steaming bed of rice, the bone-in chicken pieces, stewed in a simple sauce of pureed tomatillos, cilantro, onions, and garlic, are a comfort food. Green chicken itself is sort of a duh food, it being so simple to make. But it wasn’t until recently that I began rolling the leftover chicken (deboned, of course) into tortillas with grated cheese and topping them with the tasty sauce and cheese as green chicken enchiladas. It was a revelation. It took the original to a whole new level. While a bit more complicated than avocado toast or figs and feta, green chicken enchiladas are a duh food. I had been eating green chicken for maybe 40 years before it occurred to me to take this next step. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it decades earlier.
Green chicken is still a part of my regular rotation, and whenever I prepare it, I make sure there is enough for leftovers so I can make green chicken enchiladas.
Green Chicken Enchiladas
Green Chicken is one of the simplest ways ever to prepare chicken. Literally the most difficult part is peeling the tomatillos. Puree them in a blender or food processor with cilantro, onion, garlic, and salt and pepper, and cook the sauce over a whole, cut up chicken in a pot for an hour. That’s it. Serve it one night over steamed rice, then pick the leftover meat off the bones, and enjoy green chicken enchiladas the next.
half hour, serves 2 to 3
2 cups shredded, boneless green chicken, with sauce
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
6 corn tortillas
2 cups (about 8 oz.) shredded cheese, Oaxaca, Monterey jack, cheddar, or other good melting cheese
- Heat the green chicken in a small pot over low heat. Because it is already cooked, it only needs to be warmed.
- Heat the vegetable oil over a medium-low heat in a frying pan large enough to fit the tortillas. When hot, cook the tortillas one at a time until just softened, about 1 minute each, flipping about half way through with tongs. Place tortillas on a plate or sheet pan.
- Preheat oven to 350 oF or turn on broiler.
- Drain the chicken, reserving the sauce to cover the enchiladas. Divide the meat into six portions, laying it along the equator of each tortilla. Reserving roughly ¾ cup shredded cheese to top the enchiladas, divide the rest of the cheese among the tortillas.
- Cover the bottom of a broiler-safe baking dish with a thin layer of green chicken sauce. Roll up each tortilla as much as possible, with chicken and cheese inside, and place seam side down in the baking dish. (It’s sloppy. Do not expect perfection.) Cover with remaining sauce and top with reserved shredded cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or broil watching carefully for a minute or two, until cheese is melted. Serve hot.
