Wonderful Recipe Wednesday - Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas

Foodie blogger I am not, however I do love to cook, and thanks to Pinterest, there is an abundance of new, fun and delicious recipes to try.  I also realized that I am a terrible photographer of food.  Embarrassingly bad.  Oh well.  At least that doesn't change the yumminess of the recipes I will be sharing on Wednesdays.

First up, Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas.  I found this recipe about 9 months ago and to be honest, I have no idea why I waited so long to try them out.  In fact, I'm a little peeved at myself because they are ridiculously good.

Don't they look yummy?!!??  And how about those food photography skills by Closet Cooking?!  Impressive :)

Picture & Recipe Source

 

 

Now he says the total prep and cook time for this recipe is 30 mins.  I am not even close to being a master chef so the prep did take me a little longer - but not a crazy amount longer.  Note to self - start watching time to be sure just how long prep takes.  Oops.

 

Anyway, I didn't feel like the time was too long or not worth the end result.  To be honest, I think it took me longer because I had a heck of a time cutting up my avocados.  What does it mean when they are super hard?  Too ripe?  Not ripe enough?  I have no idea.  They still tasted good but it was a pain to dice.

 

Chicken and Avocado Enchiladas in Creamy Avocado Sauce

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup salsa verde
• 1/2 cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt) - (I used sour cream)
• 2 avocados for sauce
• 1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped (remove seeds for less heat)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon cumin, toasted and ground
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 handful cilantro (I left this out since I didn't have it on hand)
• 1/2 lime, juice
• 4 cups cooked shredded chicken (I used closer to 2.5 cups...more info below)
• 2 avocados, diced for enchilada filling
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded (I used about 1.5 cups)
• 2 cups monterey jack cheese, shredded (I used about 1.5 cups)
• 8 (7 inch) tortillas (With my changes, I had 6 tortillas/enchiladas)

Directions

1. Puree the chicken broth, salsa verde, sour cream, avocados, jalapeno, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper, cilantro and lime juice in a blender or food processor.
2. Mix the half of the sauce with the chicken, avocado, green onions and half of the cheese.
3. Coat the bottom of a large baking dish with some of the sauce, wrap the chicken and avocado mixture in the tortillas and place them in the dish.
4. Top the enchiladas with the remaining sauce and cheese and bake in a preheated 350F oven until the cheese has melted and the sides are bubbling, about 15-20 minutes.

 

Every couple of weeks, I head to my local Sam's and buy a 6lb package of chicken strips.  I clean them up and separate them into bags of 4-5 strips each to freeze.  This has proven to be a huge time saver and convenience for our family.  Whenever I have a need for chicken in a recipe, I just grab a bag and I don't have to worry about making sure I picked up chicken that week at the grocery store.  If gives us tons of flexibility and it is super easy to throw one of the bags (slightly thawed) into a crockpot for either shredded chicken for recipes or even soups.  Personally the idea of boiling chicken makes me gag so the crockpot option has made having chicken a much more feasible option in our house.

 

That was a very long winded way to tell you that even though recipes sometimes call for 4 chicken breasts or 4 cups of chicken, I usually just go with whatever my pre-packaged bag provides and adjust the other ingredients accordingly.  I am really just cooking for 2 and while we are not against leftovers, I am not a fan of eating the same thing for days.  There are just too many new recipes to try!

 

Hope you all enjoy these enchiladas as much as we did!

 

To prove how subpar my food picture skills really are, here is my prep picture.  See?  It is bad!  :)