Santa Fe Style Stacked Enchiladas Verdes ~ Vegetarian

Let me just tell you how serious I am about Mexican food, I don't mess around. I won't eat it at most restaurants and I live in the southwest where Mexican food is abundant. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled. I've eaten Mexican food cooked by people who know what they're doing and now I can't go back to the imposter's at most chain restaurants. Good Mexican food consists of just 2 or 3 important factors in my opinion.

1. The sauce. Canned stuff is out of the question and it's NOT hard to make your own.
2. The tortillas. I implore you to stop buying the thin, cardboard tasting stuff from the store. Again, seriously easy to make your own in just minutes.  Masa. Water. Boom, corn tortillas!
3. Good Cheese. Nuff said.

I made these vegetarian and they were filling and delicious. Why, because of for-said reasons. Also, I made these in my pressure cooker for fast, flavorful, and even cooking. Feel free to use a casserole dish if you don't own a pressure cooker. Layer the same, cook in a 400F pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes. ( I cooked mine in 8 minutes)

So here you go, my simple enchiladas verdes recipe. Oh, the Santa Fe style comes in because of the thicker, moist corn tortillas which are stacked and also the smoked Poblano peppers.  Enjoy.

You will need:

3 Poblano Peppers
10 Tomatillo's
1/4 cup white onion, finely minced
1/4 cup cilantro, plus more for garnish
1 tsp salt
2 zucchini, thinly sliced
handful of mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup Jack Cheese, shredded
1 cup corn kernels

'Easy Home Made Corn Tortillas' ~  recipe here

Putting it all together:

Place Poblano peppers on a broiler sheet and put in oven, 3 inches from top broiler. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turn with tongs, cook another 8-10 minutes till very charred. Remove from oven, put in a paper or plastic bag, roll closed and let skins steam off, at least10 minutes. Remove from bag, set aside until cool enough to handle. Pinch off stems, smush out seeds, peel off skins {they will peel off very easily!}. Don't worry about getting every last bit.

Husk and wash tomatillos under warm water to remove natural sticky film. Pat dry and place on broiler pan. Preheat broiler and put tomatillos on the middle rack. Cook for 10-12 minutes till browned. Remove, set aside in a bowl. Some recipes I've seen say to remove peels. I seriously don't see how that's possible,  I don't bother. Throw tomatillos, 1 cup roasted poblano, cilantro and salt in a food processor or blender and pulse till smooth. Save the rest of the poblano's for layering into enchiladas.

In the bottom of a glass dish meant for pressure cookers (or casserole dish if baking) Spread a bit of Salsa Verde (tomatillo mixture). Layer tortillas, then zucchini, mushrooms, onion, corn and chopped poblanos. I usually throw all of these veggies into a bowl together, toss then just add by handfuls to the enchiladas to make things easier.  Sprinkle with cheese, drizzle more salsa verde. Again, tortillas, veggies, cheese, salsa. Top with tortillas, salsa and then more cheese.

 Place trivet in bottom of pressure cooker if using, and add 1 cup water.

 Fold a piece of foil long enough to use as a handle to help remove casserole dish when done.

 Cover casserole dish with foil, fold foil handle over top. Lock lid onto pressure cooker. Over high heat bring pressure to 2nd red ring. Lower heat, stabilize at 2nd red ring. Cook 8 minutes.

*If baking, bake at 400F for 40-45 minutes.

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El Pollo con Chile Verde (chicken with green chile sauce)

I can not tell you how amazing homemade Chile Verde is. So, so, so, soooooo much yummier than the jarred stuff. Roasting the tomatillos, poblano peppers and garlic brings out a flavor that just can't be put into words. Sweet, tangy, charred, slightly spicy are some that come to mind.
This dish is mouth watering, eye popping, authentic tasting goodness.
Honestly, this is pretty simple. It definitely falls into the "If I can do it, anyone can do it " category.


Do you know how easy it is to make your own corn tortillas?
I didn't until my mom made a batch in all of about 5 minutes!
I'm talking 3 ingredients people, and that's including the water!
Oh my! I will never be able to eat the thin cardboardy corn tortillas sold at the store ever again.
They totally made the dish an authentic masterpiece.

click here for tortilla tutorial (say that 10 times fast...)

For El Pollo con Chile Verde,
You will need:

SERVES 6 PREP TIME 30 MIN COOK TIME 40 MIN TOTAL

2 pounds large tomatillos, husked and rinsed

1 head of garlic

2 poblano chiles

1 small white onion ( 1/2 cup)

12 homemade corn tortillas (recipe to follow)

4 chicken breasts halves

1 cup shredded Jack cheese

cilantro and green onion for garnish

low-fat sour cream to dollop on top of finished pie

Putting it all together:

For the Chile Verde:

Preheat your broiler and put the rack about 6 inches
from the top.

Husk and rinse the tomatillos. Rinse the

poblanos. Slice the top of the garlic head off and remove outer skin. Drizzle with a tiny bit of EVOO.

On a broiler pan, spread tomatillos, poblanos and garlic, not touching if possible.

Put in oven and cook 8-10 minutes.

Using tongs, flip the peppers and the tomatillos over.

Cook about 5 more minutes. They should be pretty charred but not burned.

Remove from oven and carefully put tomatillos ( they will be smushy), whole, into your blender and set aside.

Put the poblanos into a paper bag and roll closed to steam the peels off, about 10 minutes or so.

Set garlic aside to cool slightly.

Add quartered onion to blender. I let it cool a bit while I'm preparing the rest of the meal so it doesn't blend boiling.... scary.

Turn oven down to 400 degrees!

I use my pressure cooker and can cook frozen solid chicken breasts in 6 minutes. You can boil them for about 15 minutes if you don't have one.

I throw the cooked chicken into my KitchenAid with the cookie paddle attachment and turn it to speed 4 for about 1 minute to shred my chicken.

You can use the dual fork method also.


Check this out...... don't hate me.

In goes 5 cooked chicken breasts...

30 seconds later, perfectly shredded chicken.

Beautiful!

O.k. back to the salsa verde......

Remove poblanos from bag and the peels should come off super easy. Pull on the stem and squish the seeds out, a few seeds are fine. Throw them in the blender with the tomatillos, onion and garlic and blend for 2 minutes until smooth.

Now, just put a layer a few tortillas, then chicken, salsa verde and Jack cheese into a baking dish. Top with another layer of tortillas, drizzle with more salsa verde and sprinkle with a little more cheese.

It's as easy as uno, dos, tres! ;-)

Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Garnish with chopped cilantro, diced green onions and light sour cream!

Ice cold cerveza optional.

PRINT THIS RECIPE!

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