Mild green chili salsa paired with chicken and pepper jack cheese.
These freeze well once assembled, before the final cook. I use them for D8, D24, D30 and L32, L36. Again having quick meals in the freezer that you know what is in them comes in handy, cheaper and healthier than processed foods.
A note on peppers – they are higher in vitamin C than oranges. So for later in the shopping cycle an enchilada can give you a boost of C that you may miss if you are running low on fruits.
Two chicken breast cutlets, coriander, cumin, jalapeno powder, green chili salsa, corn tortillas, sweet peppers, garlic, onion, pepper jack.
Halve the sweet peppers and scrape out the seeds and membranes, remove stems.
Slice peppers into strips, then dice.
Cut slices into the onion, leaving the root end intact.
Then cut into dice.
Smash then chop two cloves of garlic.
Place two chicken cutlets into the micro for 10 seconds. You just want to slightly thaw them, they will still be quite firm.
Leaving the cutlets frozen makes the much easing to cut into even pieces.
Turn, then slice the other direction into cubes.
Look at the nutrition label for the green chile salsa. Check the vitamin C- 60% of daily value per serving.
Add some chicken fat to the pan and heat to medium.
Add the veggies to the pan and begin sweating.
Add in a palm full of each, cumin, coriander, and jalapeno (to taste). You see cooks doing this all the time. Most of us know that this is about a teaspoon. Sounds weird but try measuring a teaspoon of salt into your hand, see what it looks like.
Get the spices into the pan to warm and release their oils.
Add the cubed chicken to the veg.
Add the green chile salsa to the chicken and veggies – let them cook together. Take the one serving out for today’s meal, and let the rest cool completely.
Shred a cup of pepper jack.
I have four of these little individual loaf pans. They are great for prepping and freezing, like I will do here. This will make 5 meals so I will do one for tonight’s dinner, then freeze four for later. I freeze them in the pan then remove them to a freezer bag and reheat them in the pans. That forms them in the shape of the pan but keeps the pan free for other uses.
Put a layer of salsa in the bottom of the pan.
Have a rack ready to accept the tortillas once they are warmed. If you put them on a flat surface or a plate the steam will make them stick and sog.
This is how I heat tortillas – There are a lot of different ways, but I like charred bits on my tortillas. It just adds authentic flavor. I learned this from a friends grandma in California, and just has been how I do it ever since. Gas or electric. Heat the stove ring to high.
Drag the tortilla across the burner several times on both sides, turning over and around each time. Do not stop moving the tortilla slide it across the burner quickly.
Authentic flavor! Place the first tortilla on the rack, and do the second. Probably want to have the exhaust fan on for this.
Add a small amount of the chicken mixture, and a pinch of cheese to each tortilla.
And roll up. Resist the urge to overfill.
Place seam side down in the prepared pan.
Top with a bit more salsa, and more cheese. Bake in a 350 oven for 15 minutes.
Cheesy chickeny chile goodness.
Wash out the pan you used to cook the first batch for dinner.
Line each pan with foil, leaving enough overhang to wrap completely once filled.
Add salsa to each pan, just like before.
Have all the pans ready before you start heating the tortillas.
Split the cooled chicken mixture into eight equal portions.
Working two tortillas at a time, char over burner.
Fill each with a portion of chicken and a bit of cheese.
Lay into the prepared pans.
Seal the foil, and freeze in the pans.
Freeze overnight and remove pans, and place in a zipper bag.
To reheat. Preheat oven to 350, remove foil and drop into the same pan they were frozen in, cover with the foil heat 20 minutes sealed, top with cheese and salsa heat another 10 minutes uncovered. L32 – Chicken enchilada With rice or salad.
To reheat.
Unwrap foil.
Put a bit of oil or chicken fat in the same pan I froze them in.
Drop in the frozen enchiladas with the sauce side down.
Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
Remove foil and top with pepper jack, and more salsa if desired.
I have always cooked, I was that person who could make a meal from an empty fridge. I have lived alone and with large and small families, I have cooked for camps on wood stoves, and in professional kitchens. I have lived and worked all over the west from Montana, to Seattle to Arizona to San Diego. I have traveled, maybe not 'all over the world', yet, and have collected tastes recipes and techniques everywhere, and every one I meet.
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