Enchilada de Pollo

Eating at Mexican restaurants growing up, I recall having an extremely limited list of options of what I wanted to eat on the menu. At first, it was only nachos, especially those from El Matador. Then, I began to branch out into quesadillas and cheese enchiladas. I know, I am such a thrill seeker. My ability to try different Tex Mex foods has grown since then, but my ability to make Mexican is relegated to making nachos, tacos, and Mexican salad. Until last weekend when my first attempt at enchiladas was tried.


Overall, it was a good meal (one I am still eating leftovers from). But, I do not think I will use the exact same recipe again. I had hopes, but Rachael Ray and her recipe went awry somewhere. Cooking the chicken in the broth with oregano and onions was great. I had never really known how to cook chicken other than cut it up in chunks and cook it in a skillet. I know, I know, shocking. But true. It used to be cooking it on the George Foreman, which resulted in dry, weirdly crusted chicken. So, stovetop chicken chunks is a step up.

Back to the meal. Where the recipe is off is in the sauce. It was too sweet. It had decent back of the throat heat, but the front flavor was like eating sugary tomato sauce. And the chicken stuffing needed some more juice or sauce or some cheese in it. It came out a little dry. But the clear main detractor was the sauce.


There were some adjustments I had to make to the recipe because I could not find hot cayenne pepper sauce. Maybe it does not exist at the grocery store here; maybe I was looking in the wrong place; maybe it goes by some brand name I am unaware of. And, yes, if one of you comments that hot cayenne pepper sauce is more commonly known as Tabasco or something, I will feel foolish. But it would not be first or the last time for that to occur.

The best part of the enchiladas was the cheese. While Aaron was getting his sandwich meats and cheeses at the grocery store, I investigated the cheese display for some Monterey jack cheese. I narrowed it down to four options. We decided that since I am still a little leery of really spicy things, to go with a mild-looking Monterey jack and a salsa jack cheese. The Monterey was so-so, but the Salsa Jack was great. Aaron and I ate dinner talking about where else we could use the cheese - queso, tacos, fried cheese sticks, eggs. And, since I want all of you to run out and buy a round, here is all the info you need about this cheese. It is the Salsa Jack Cheese, produced by Great Midwest. They have other variations on the same theme - habanero jack (I was to chicken for that one), smokey jack, etc.

And for dessert...s'mores. It has nothing to do with Tex Mex or enchiladas, but I wanted s'mores, so I got 'em. And so did Aaron, who contemplated their strata before eating.