Awesome Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

From Our Best Bites

This recipe showed up on my Feedly, and I sprinted to the kitchen to make it.  Totally worth the shin splints.  Since Joe and I love the heat, I've jacked the recipe a bit from the original.

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

5 tbsp butter
5 tbsp flour
2 15 oz cans chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder (or more, to taste)
black pepper, to taste
1/3 c sour cream
Tabasco or your favorite hot pepper sauce, to taste
salt, to taste
4 oz cream cheese (I know, you want to add more, but it's not necessary), softened to stirring consistency
1 7 oz can green chilies (or more, to taste)
3-4 c cooked, shredded chicken (I used rotisserie chicken from the grocery)
4 c shredded jack/cheddar cheese (I also added a bit of pepper Jack)
10-12 small flour tortillas, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Lightly spray a 9x13" Pyrex or other baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.

Add butter and flour to large saucepan and heat over medium heat.  As butter begins to melt, start stirring.  The flour and butter will begin to combine to form a paste.  Once all of the flour is coated with all of the butter (2-3 minutes), it will start to brown (and you'll start to wonder what fresh hell you've created - congratulations, you just made a roux!)  Begin slowly pouring in the chicken broth.  Continue stirring as the gloppy butter and flour mixture starts to dissolve.  Keep adding the broth and KEEP STIRRING.  When all the broth is added, and your wrist is starting to cramp, add the dry spices.  Bring the sauce to a simmer and continue to stir.  All of a sudden, you'll notice the sauce is thickening.  KEEP STIRRING.

When the sauce is the consistency of week-old buttermilk, remove the saucepan from the heat.  Remember, there's a fine line between "thickened" and "congealed."  Stir the sour cream and the hot pepper sauce into the hot mixture and, you guessed it, keep stirring until combined.  Set aside.

Now, I know that this sauce does not look like the red enchilada sauce you're probably used to.  In fact, depending on the amount of hot pepper sauce you added, it's barely a pale pink...that's perfect for this recipe.

In a separate mixing bowl, mix together the softened cream cheese, the green chilies, and about a 1/2 cup of your lovely sauce.  Add the chicken and about 2 cups of cheese.  Mix together.

Pour about 1 cup of the sauce into the bottom of the prepared pan and spread out evenly.  Take a tortilla in the cup of your hand and fill it with some of the chicken mixture.  Don't be chintzy, but don't over fill it - remember you're going to have to roll it a bit.  Push together and overlap the edges of the tortilla, and pretend you're rolling a joint.  Work the two sides toward each other to help spread out the mixture, then place seam-side down in the dish.

Personal note - I tried using the large flour tortillas, but there's a lot of excess tortilla.  I used the smaller ones and, while the insides squished out a bit, there was a more satisfying ratio of chicken mixture to tortilla.

Once all the tortillas are lined up in the dish, commingling their lovely contents into the sauce, pour the remaining sauce over the top and cover with the remaining two cups of cheese.  If you like (which I did), you can also add jalapeno slices all over the top, but, under the cheese.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until hot and bubbly.