Find Deliciousness

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Chicken Enchiladas for the VP Debate



For the US VP Debate, I decided to make some spicy Mexican food and drink some wine.  Seemed like the patriotic thing to do.  Or something.

I haven't made these enchiladas in about a year, but used to make them all the time.  They turned out pretty good.  

Ingredients:
  • tortillas
  • ground chicken
  • frozen red, green, and yellow pepper strips
  • onion
  • garlic
  • can of black beans
  • can of refried red beans
  • can of diced tomatoes and peppers
  • Mexican sour cream
  • Mexican melting cheese
  • Valentina's hot sauce (water chili peppers)
  • Goya Salsita (ancho chili peppers)
  • white pepper
  • red pepper
  • black pepper
  • kosher salt
  • garlic salt
  • celery salt
  • Casillero del Diablo - Carmenere 2007

Procedure:
    To start with, I caramelized the onions and peppers in olive oil with some garlic and the spices.  Once that was cooked, I added the ground chicken, which cooks pretty quickly.  When the chicken was getting there, I added some of the red wine and an ounce or two of each of the hot sauces.  Then I added the three cans - tomatoes, black beans, and refried red beans.  This all simmered until it started thickening up as the moisture evaporated.  Then I added a little of the cheese and some Mexican sour cream.  That finished off the enchilada filling.  I then put about two spoonfuls of filling in each tortilla, rolled them up, and put them in a baking pan.  Once the pan was full, I covered all the enchiladas with Mexican melting cheese.  This all went in the oven at 300 for about 15-20 minutes, until the cheese was nicely melted.  Done!

Resulting Deliciousness:
    These enchiladas turned out a lot spicier than I usually make them.  I didn't realize it had been a long time since I ate some good spicy food.  It took a while for my palate to get used to it and be able to taste the flavors over the spice.  Once it did, these enchiladas were great.  The wine went much better with them than I thought it would.  It is a very flavorful wine and it complimented the spicy food quite well.