Mom’s Enchiladas:Redux

 

My mother was famous for her creamy chicken enchiladas when I was growing up. Reading around a bit (like chowhound) a lot of people had a similar dish in the 70’s and 80’s- loaded with cheese, sour cream, and Campbell’s cream of chicken soup- and it doesn’t surprise me that many people remember this fondly.  These days I like to make them a little bit healthier than the original, and they taste fabulous.

Mom’s Enchiladas (Redux):

Ingredients:

• 1-2 chicken breasts
• 1 large bell pepper, diced
• half an onion, or small onion, diced
• small container of sour cream
• can cream of chicken/whatever soup
• can black beans
• can of chilies
• jalapenos
• mushrooms, or whatever veggies you want to add
• 20 corn tortillas

Cook the chicken however you prefer, I like to boil chicken. I also like to fork-shred the chicken while it’s hot and scald my fingers.

Chop the veggies. I chopped half a green bell pepper, half a red pepper, half a large onion, and let them sit in a warm skillet for a few minutes so they wouldn’t be too crunchy.

I also diced some jalapenos and mild chilies.Mix together the cream of mushroom or chicken soup, the beans, the sour cream, cheese, chilies, and the veggies.

When it is all ready, heat the tortillas by microwave method or stovetop. Microwave is a little faster (30 seconds with a damp paper towel covering the lot.)

Spoon the mixture into the tortillas, and place them into a pan. The pan should have a little bit of the filling or salsa on the bottom so that the tortillas don’t stick while cooking.

Roll each tortilla with a little bit of the filling and chicken inside, and place in the pan. Repeat until you are out of tortillas or running low on mix. Optional: top the enchiladas with the creamy sauce. This time I topped with a little bit of sauce, and a little bit of salsa. Salsa is a great way to reduce the calories.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, covered in tin foil. If desired you can also top with a cup of shredded cheese.

The lower calorie version is just as rich and good. My next mission might be to replace the Cream of Chicken soup with something healthier, so I’ll be on the lookout.

Enjoy!