Vintage enchiladas

Nowadays you can find a wide variety of Mexican ingredients almost everywhere, so your cooking can be as authentic as possible north of the border – fresh tomatillos, every kind of chile from poblano to serrano, queso fresco, and of course, corn tortillas.

This recipe contains none of these things.  It’s what I’d call a “vintage” recipe, inspired by my mother’s worn 1960s copy of Joy of Cooking.

I found it funny that the recipe is tucked between pizza and quiche – the international recipe section, I suppose. It mysteriously omits the number of tortillas and amount of cheese, only specifying half a cup of onion and one cup of tomato puree – yet somehow it’s designed to make “about 2 dozen” (of what? possibly the world’s smallest enchiladas?).

My mom and I made these together recently, with a few key adjustments to the original recipe – adding chicken to make the enchiladas more of a meal, increasing the amount of tomato, and using pepper jack instead of mozzarella.

Authentic?  Nope.

But that simple, homey combination of flour tortillas melting together with tomato sauce and cheese takes me back to my childhood.  And sometimes, that’s just what I need.

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Enchiladas

1.5 – 2 lb skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped fine
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 box Pomi strained tomatoes (26.5 oz)
1/2 cup chicken stock
8 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded
Package of flour tortillas (we had six 8 inch tortillas)

Preheat oven to 350º.

Cook chicken pieces in large sauté pan, seasoning with salt and pepper.  When browned, add about 2/3rds of chopped onion and cook until softened.

Add chili powder and cumin and stir for about 30 seconds for spices to bloom.  Add tomato and chicken stock.  Bring back to simmer.

Spread a bit of the tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9 x 13″ pan.  Divide the shredded cheese so that you have a little more than half reserved for topping.

Assemble the enchiladas: add sauce with chicken to each tortilla, plus a bit of cheese and a handful of the reserved chopped raw onion.  Roll up and place in the pan, seam down.

Ensure that you reserve a bit of extra tomato sauce and spread over the top of the enchiladas, then cover with remaining shredded cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until bubbling.