Chicken enchiladas

My apologies to my faithful fans for missing a day of posting. I didn't actually cook anything, and it was a bad day. But, I made chicken enchiladas on Monday, and I wanted to share my recipe with you.

What you need:
Whole chicken
Onion (I use vidalia or white onion)
Packet of burrito seasoning
Packet of 8 tortillas (burrito size)
Mexican cheese blend
Can of enchilada sauce (red or green)
toppings: lettuce, tomato, sour cream, black olives, salsa, whatever you like

First, the key to my awesome chicken enchiladas is to start at about 7 a.m. with a whole chicken, a half cup of water and a crock pot. Cut up some chunks of onion and cook it on low all day long.

When you get home at night, take the chicken out of the crockpot (freeze the stock in a ziploc bag for later), and take all the meat off the bone and put it in a big bowl. Chop up some fresh onion and add to the meat. Then add a packet of burrito seasoning. I use the Kroger brand that is 59 cents in the Mexican food aisle. Yes, I said burrito seasoning. It gives the meat an excellent taste. It's better to do all this when the meat is still at least a little warm.

Next, heat your oven to 350 and spray some Pam in a 9 by 13 baking dish.

Take out your tortillas and put some of the meat mixture and a handful of cheese in the middle of each one. Roll it them up and put them seam side down in the baking dish (I do them one at a time).

Fill the pan up with the rolled enchiladas, cover with sauce and more mexican cheese.

Bake on 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

Serve with toppings of your choice and Fiesta Rice (recipe below).

Fiesta rice
Instant brown rice
chicken broth
can of black beans
1 cup salsa

Prepare 2 cups of brown rice according to package directions, using chicken broth instead of water (don't you have some left from your chicken?)
Add a can of black beans, drained and 1 cup of salsa.

A note on tortillas: I use pre-packaged flour tortillas, because they are easy to work with. I buy them in the Mexican food section of Kroger. They are made by some Americans somewhere. However, my sister-in-law, Estela Benitez is an expert on tortillas, as she has made them from scratch just about every day of her life. She says I could make them myself, but frankly I am afraid. So, she suggested that I go to the panaderia by my work where they make the tortillas for most of the restaurants. She says that they are usually inexpensive there and will be much better than what you get from Old El Paso and the like. So, I will do that for next time. Maybe for fish taco night, which is coming up soon. Friday, maybe?