Blue and yellow and green all over

We love to eat Mexican food. I was browsing over at Simply Recipes, and this recipe for Chicken Enchiladas Verdes caught my eye. The recipe gives directions for a delicious-sounding homemade tomatillo sauce, but also gives the option of making this dish with bottled salsa verde. I'd love to experiment with tomatillos some day, but for this weeknight dinner, it was the jarred stuff all the way!


I kept pretty much to the recipe, using chicken thighs and cooking them as instructed. The meat turned out tender and fragrant. I softened the blue and yellow corn tortillas with the recipe's method (in a skillet with oil), dipped the tortillas in salsa verde, then filled them with a spicy chicken mixture and rolled the echiladas.


For the sauce, I substituted Greek Yogurt (2%) for the specified sour cream, spooned it on top of the enchiladas, sprinkled onions and organic shredded pepper jack cheese on top, and ran the dish under the broiler to melt the cheese. My enchiladas were nowhere near as beautiful as those over at Simply Recipes, but they had a great cheesy appeal of their own!

I served these with guacamole, salsa, chips, and a green salad.

The Verdict:
These enchiladas are excellent, and I will definitely make them again. The key is to get a salsa verde that is great, because the flavor is prominent. The salsa I used was quite tangy but tasty. The Greek yogurt worked perfectly in the sauce, and I'd do it again, possibly with nonfat yogurt.

I'd take a few shortcuts next time:
1. If possible, cook and shred the chicken in advance. This is a great recipe for using leftover roast chicken or turkey.
2. I'd soften the tortillas by putting them in the microwave between damp paper towels. This is easy and fast, and eliminates the added oil and dirty frying pan.
3. I'd skip the step of dipping the tortillas in the tomatillo sauce. Instead, I'd try making the recipe as a casserole: fill and roll the softened tortillas, place them in a baking dish, make up the sauce and spoon it over the rolls. Then sprinkle the cheese, cover with foil and bake in the oven until hot and melty. I'd serve with chopped onion, cilantro, chopped hot peppers and chopped tomatoes on the side, to be added as desired.

{Update November 19, 2008: I've now discovered a salsa verde/ enchilade recipe that I like even better! You can find the entry here.}