Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

I’ve always loved chicken enchiladas with a green sauce at Mexican restaurants and was hoping this would be a good substitute!

I found them lacking something, although my children enjoyed them. I think it was onions I was missing. But if I’d added them that might have meant the children did not like them, as they’re not big fans.  So if you’re looking for a mild chicken enchilada type recipe, you might like this.  Personally, I liked these green enchiladas with the store-bought sauce better so I need to experiment a bit to find a good green sauce. I already have found a good red enchilada sauce recipe.

But if you tend to like blander foods, I think you’ll like it. I took the basis from The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook: 200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare and it was good, just not quite as “sharp” somehow as what I was thinking. Or maybe it need some tomatillo sauce.

I served this with rice and beans so cut her recipe in half  to try to fill a 9×9 pan instead of a 9×13.  This made 6 enchiladas but the last two were a bit stuffed so you could easily make it 8 I think and add a bit more cheese. Oh, I also put some cheese inside each one rather than having it all on the top.

• 8 ounces sour cream (I always use light)
• 1 6 oz can chopped green chilies
• 1/2 cup or so homemade chicken stock
• 1 cup shredded or diced cooked chicken
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 corn tortillas
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese or a Mexican mix

In a skillet, heat the sour cream, chilies and 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Stir as you heat it. If it seems too thick, add a bit more chicken broth (or water if you used frozen broth and 1/2 cup is all you’ve got!).

Remove 1/2 cup or so of the sauce at this point and set aside to top the enchiladas.

Add the chicken and stir in, then simmer 15 minutes or so to blend the flavors.  Add salt and pepper to taste, which will depend heavily on how seasoned your broth was.

Preheat the oven to 350 F while your chicken mix is simmering.

When it’s close to the 15 minutes, heat your corn tortillas so they’ll be more pliable. I have a Styrofoam tortilla warmer that goes in the microwave that I picked up for $1 at the grocery store years ago.

Lay a tortilla on your cutting board or on a plate, place some of the chicken mix in the middle  in a row across the tortilla, then add a small bit of grated cheese, then roll the tortilla up and place seam side down in a small baking dish. Repeat until all the chicken sauce is used up. Top with the 1/2 cup of sauce that you pulled out earlier. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

Bake uncovered at 350F for 15-20 minutes.

In terms of timing, if you’re serving rice and beans, canned (or precooked) refried beans will take just a few minutes in the microwave so I would do those after the enchiladas come out of the oven.

If you’re cooking rice in a rice cooker, like my Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 5-1/2-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer, Premium White, just start it when you first start dinner and the rice will be ready and waiting! I do love the rice cookers for that “keep warm” feature. In fact, today with a sick child at home, I made some rice at lunch because the doctor recommended plain white rice as her first solid food after the stomach flu. She ate some and I left the rest on the “keep warm” setting until dinner, 6 hours later. It was still perfect! If you cook rice on the stovetop, just allow about 30 minutes, so start it while the sauce is simmering.

Chicken was on sale here for 77 cents a pound, so I spent $4.70 for a chicken that made the broth and provided two or three times as much chicken as I used here in this recipe.   I’ll use up some of the rest in the next day or two and freeze the rest of the cooked chicken and broth (separately) for various dishes.  She calculated the cost for a double of this recipe as $4.75 total (to feed four people) but that included $1 for corn that I didn’t use, but would cover a can of refried beans easily enough. I’ve fed two of us and easily have another two servings so think that’s pretty accurate.  I haven’t ever calculated the average cost of rice per serving but will try to do that at some point.  For us, 1/3 cup of cooked rice per serving is adequate and that can’t add much.

Cocktail Sauce Recipe

We splurged on New Year’s Eve and had some fresh crab and shrimp.  I mixed up a homemade cocktail sauce recipe for the shrimp, and mixed some with a fair bit of mayonnaise for the crab.  The joy of making your own is that you can adjust the seasonings to make it as spicy or mild as you like.

• 1 cup ketchup or 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/2 cup chili sauce for a spicier version
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 Tbs horseradish sauce
• 1 Tbs minced onion
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• Tabasco sauce to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.  Chill 30 minutes or so to blend the flavors.

The next day I made crab cakes with the leftover crab and mixed some mayonnaise with the last of the cocktail sauce to top the crab cakes. Delicious!

Cooking Crab Cakes from Leftover Crab

Hopefully you can splurge now and then on some special food, whatever that is for your family. And then if there are leftovers you certainly don’t want to waste them! For us, or at least for me, it’s fresh crab, which is in season right now. It’s our traditional New Year’s Eve dinner and such a treat!  The whole Dungeness crabs were buy one get one free, which is a great deal!  But my eldest got sick and my youngest was off to a party and there was no way I was going to eat two crabs by myself!  I enjoyed the one with some cocktail sauce (homemade) mixed with some mayonnaise on New Year’s Eve, then picked the meat out of the extra one yesterday. Today I made crab cakes for dinner, making 4 good size crab cakes from 1 crab, less than 1/2 pound.  Mix this together about 45 minutes before you want to eat, then refrigerate half an hour before shaping and frying.   Mix up the cocktail sauce or tartar sauce while you’re waiting.

• 1/2 pound lump crab meat (about one small crab’s worth)
• 1 egg
• 1/8 cup minced red bell pepper (optional, my kids would like it better without)
• 1/4 cup minced green onions
• 2 Tbs mayonnaise
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1/2 cup flour for dredging
• lemon wedges at serving

Mixing up Crab Cakes

Mix the crabmeat, egg, bell pepper if using, green onions, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper and bread crumbs.  You need enough bread crumbs to hold the mixture together but you want the crab cake to be mostly crab so start with a tablespoon at a time and mix it together, adding a spoonful now and then and stop as soon as it holds itself together. Refrigerate 30 minutes or so.

Put the flour in a small shallow plate or dish and season with salt and pepper as you’d like. Some folks add curry powder. I did not.

Heat a large skillet and add the butter and oil, swirling the pan around until well coated after the butter melts.

Shape the mixture into 4 crab cakes, one at a time, dredging in flour and then adding to the pan. Cook about 4-5 minutes, turn, and then cook the other side another 4-5 minutes or so.

Chicken Cutlets

I’m just guessing but I’m thinking Chicken Parmesan came about when someone like me made too many chicken cutlets.  You can turn them into pretty good chicken sandwiches (why else would they sell frozen breaded chicken patties?) and even Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.

But I think the classic dish for leftover chicken cutlets has to be Chicken Parmesan. A while back I had made too many chicken cutlets and froze the extras.

Chicken Parmesan from Leftover Chicken Cutlets

Tonight I used up the last with some fantastic Chicken Parmesan. I thawed the leftovers just enough to separate them, then laid them in a shallow baking dish. I put a slice of mozzarella cheese on top of most of them, poured some reheated marinara sauce from the freezer on top, like this or this.  I topped with some grated Parmesan cheese and baked at 350 F for 25-30 minutes.

During that time, I made a small Caesar salad and cooked up some angel hair pasta.  A perfect combo and a great way to use up some of my frozen assets.

http://origin-www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Turkey_Basics_Handling_Cooked_Dinners/index.asp

“Storage of Leftovers

Refrigerator (40 °F or below)

• Cooked turkey …… 3 to 4 days
• Cooked dishes and gravy …… 3 to 4 days

Freezer (0 °F or below)

• Turkey, plain; slices or pieces …… 4 mos.
• Turkey covered with broth or gravy …… 6 mos.
• Cooked poultry dishes, stuffing, and gravy …… 4-6 mos.

(Freezer storage times are for quality only. Frozen foods remain safe indefinitely.)

Turkey enchiladas with red sauce

When you’re tired of turkey hash and turkey soup and turkey sandwiches, make these turkey enchiladas!  Totally not “leftovers” but just a great Mexican-oriented meal.  I made half green sauce and half red sauce enchiladas. The green sauce was store-bought, the red sauce was this enchilada sauce recipe.

For the enchiladas, chop up a bunch of turkey. Sorry, no measurements, maybe 2-3 cups for a dozen enchiladas. It depends on how stuffed you like your enchiladas. Any leftover chopped turkey can go into this turkey sandwich spread or be used for many other leftover turkey recipes.

Grate some Cheddar cheese or use a Mexican cheese blend. (2-3 cups for a dozen enchiladas)

Turkey Enchiladas with Green Sauce

Heat some corn tortillas in the microwave in a tortilla warmer.

Use about 15 ounces sauce for each half dozen enchiladas.

Pour a bit of sauce into the bottom of  a shallow baking dish. Roll up the tortillas with some turkey and cheese inside and place seam side down. Top the enchiladas with the rest of the sauce, sprinkle some more cheese on top, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so.

First, I had some leftover Sort of Mexican Chicken Soup.  I added a large spoonful of this avocado pico del gallo and some crushed tortilla chips. Mmm!

I also used the last of the cooked chicken to make a chicken salad sandwich.  I am totally guessing at the measurements just to give any new cooks a starting place. You must taste and adjust!

• 1 cup diced cooked chicken
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1-2 Tbs sweet pickle relish
• 2-3 Tbs mayonnaise
• 1-2 tsp Dijon mustard
• a dash of sweet curry powder
• a dash of salt

I toasted up some sliced sourdough for the sandwich part. Had I wanted a salad without the bread I might have added some diced apples and/or diced grapes.  I kept the curry powder very light. I just wanted a hint of it.  Really quite nice!\

Oh, and I don’t mean to imply this only made one sandwich!  There is more chicken salad for tomorrow!

Mexican Inspired Chicken Soup

I wanted some soup for lunches later in the week so cooked this up to go with the carne asada soft tacos I was making for dinner. I wanted something Mexican oriented and with some vegetables so played around a bit and came up with this soup. I used some corn I had frozen after we had leftover corn on the cob. I just sliced it off the cob and froze it. I liked it in the soup because it was larger chunks of corn rather than just individual kernels.

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 tsp taco seasoning (optional)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt (depending on your broth)
• 6 cups homemade chicken broth
• 1 cup cooked chicken, diced
• 1 cup corn (I used frozen)
• 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

This could have gone any number of directions depending on what I had found while rooting through the freezer and vegetable bin.  If I’d wanted a lighter soup, I’d have left out the chicken but I was thinking this would make a nice lunch for me later. If I’d wanted a heavier soup I would have added some cooked beans and maybe some potatoes or rice. Also, if I’d had extra salsa without the avocados I would have added that instead of or in addition to the fresh tomato from my garden.

Heat the oil and cook the onion and celery until softened. Sprinkle with the taco seasoning, cumin and salt and cook a minute. Add the rest of the ingredient except for the fresh cilantro and simmer 30 minutes, stirring now and then. Garnish with the cilantro and serve.

Mmm!  Could also add some diced avocado, grated cheese and crushed tortilla chips if you wanted a heartier soup.

Meatball sandwich

In truth, there’s hardly a recipe for a meatball sandwich. At its simplest, you take a French or hoagie roll, put a few meatballs on it, ladle some spaghetti sauce on it and eat.

If you want to get a bit fancier, you’d use your own homemade meatballs. My favorite recipe uses ground pork and ground beef, plus cheese.  But if ground pork is hard to find or too expensive, just use all ground beef. These days I prefer to bake them rather than fry them. I make a lot, then flash freeze what i don’t need so I have a handy stash in the freezer.

The other night we had company and I went all out and made Sunday Gravy a la the Soprano’s. I made double the meatballs though and froze the extra sauce and meatballs, plus sent some sauce and sausage and meat home with a guest plus sent some over to the neighbor with a broken leg. The recipe makes a lot!

My youngest has been loving having spaghetti and meatballs for lunch every day this week, although she took a break today. Then she came home and asked if we could have meatball sandwiches for dinner! Ha!  Sure…

I put some meatballs and sauce on the stove to heat up, then took the French rolls and opened them up, spread with some butter, sprinkled with some garlic powder and broiled until crispy.   By then the meatballs and sauce were warmed through. I put 3 meatballs on each French roll, ladled some sauce on top, then put some grated Mozzarella over it and put the sandwiches back under the broiler for a bit.

Mmmm.  We broke with tradition and ate dinner while watching Glee on TV.  Served the sandwiches with a green salad and it was a lovely dinner.  What a great way to use up leftovers.

I’ll add a few favorites of my own:

• Chinese Chicken Salad #1
• Chinese Chicken Salad #2
• Chicken and Corn Chowder
• Chicken Curry Salad
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Chicken Quesadillas
• Chili Chicken Casserole
• Creamed Chicken on Rice
• Creole Chicken
• Enchiladas
• Fried Rice
• Leftover Turkey or Chicken Sandwich Spread
• Middle East Chicken Soup
• Pasta with Chicken and Artichoke Sauce
• Turkey Casserole
• Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
• Turkey Skillet