While I am furiously scribbling down bookmarked recipes before the book’s due date, I thought I’d post one from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe, by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated and (I guess?) tested by the stars of “America’s Test Kitchen” (the former is a magazine and the latter a PBS show, and to my understanding the same people are mostly involved in both). Anyway, whoever they are, these people do work that makes you feel that they are really quite indispensable. So they take advantage of this and ask you to pay to access most of their website and stuff, but there are probably large cookbooks of theirs available at your local library to enable you to resist that temptation, for a while. Especially if you don’t have a scanner or printer, they will keep you busy enough, bookmarking and copying down an enormous number of pages that contain delectable but practical, doable recipes.
I made this recently—as it appeared in a slightly modified form in their e-mail newsletter awhile back—and if your family likes/tolerates (digestively, I mean) Mexican food with a slight kick, you must try it. By “freezer” they mean that you can freeze the sauce and enchiladas for up to 2 months; except for defrosting the sauce in the microwave, the dish can go straight from freezer to oven when you’re ready for it.
Freezer Chicken Enchiladas
For the sauce (just buy a big can if you’re low on time):
1 29-oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 med. onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. coriander
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
For the filling:
3 c. shredded cooked chicken
2 1/2 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1/3 c. chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbsp. pickled jalapeños, minced
10 6″ corn tortillas
1. To make ahead: Blend tomato sauce, onion, garlic, chipotle, cumin, coriander, salt, and broth in blender until smooth. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add tomato mixture, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until mixture is reduced to 3 1/2 cups, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Toss 3/4 cup sauce with chicken, 1 cup of the cheese, cilantro, and jalepeños.
3. Place 5 tortillas on baking sheet and lightly coat both sides with cooking spray. Bake tortillas until just pliable, about 2 minutes. Working quickly, transfer one tortilla at a time to work surface, fill with 1/3 cup chicken mixture, and roll tightly. Transfer, seam side down, to large plate. Repeat warming and rolling process with remaining 5 tortillas. Place plate in freezer until enchiladas are frozen, at least 1 hour.
4. Place remaining sauce in freezersafe container and press 2 layers of plastic wrap directly onto surface of sauce. Tightly wrap enchiladas in bundles of 5, first in plastic and then in foil. Freeze for up to 2 months.
5. When ready to serve: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Defrost enchilada sauce in microwave on defrost setting, about 12 minutes.
6. Coat a 13 by 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange frozen enchiladas in single layer in baking dish and coat tops with cooking spray. Bake until tops of tortillas are just beginning to flake, about 20 minutes. Remove dish from oven, top enchiladas with 1 1/2 cups sauce, and bake 10 minutes longer. Sprinkle enchiladas with remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese and bake until cheese melts and center of casserole is hot and bubbling, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve, passing remaining sauce and garnishes (see note above) at table.
** If you want to serve this dish immediately (rather than freezing it), preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place an oven rack in the middle position. After rolling the enchiladas, place them seam-side down in a single layer in a 13×9″ baking dish. Pour the sauce on top, covering the enchiladas completely, then sprinkle on the remaining 1 1/2 cup of cheese. Cover the dish with aluminum foil sprayed with vegetable oil and bake until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted, 20-25 minutes.
Ruby
countrylane
eworpell
Lauren
hemuen
jessi
Heidi
Laura
lucricausa
mengmom
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keeping house 
11 comments
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August 20, 2008 at 12:07 am
eworpell
Wow-this looks really good! Thank you for sharing!
August 20, 2008 at 3:50 pm
kamelda
This does look really delicious. Perhaps I could make it, eat half and freeze half? –I have to make things in portions I can eat, as Ruben doesn’t ‘tolerate’ –simply on the face value of that word– Mexican food :-) (rather ironically).
August 20, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Laura
Sure, you could divide the enchiladas and the sauce among four containers. Or if you’re like me and don’t have that many containers you could just use plastic wrap and then foil for the ones going in the freezer. The sauce is really good. Even without coriander, which I’ve never owned. I just used dried cilantro, which I now realize is pretty useless (= flavorless), but I’m resisting the urge to throw out the bottle. I just toss a generous amount into any Mexican dish and little by little it is diminishing. :p
August 20, 2008 at 4:29 pm
kamelda
Yes it does seem like there are never enough plastic containers. I’ve learned from my mom how indispensable these items are: the entire storage space under the bar in her kitchen is devoted to her plastic collection (with another deep drawer elsewhere for lids). The advantage of having such a mother is that she is always willing to give away containers to any needy soul :-).
I’ve never owned coriander either –something else we have in common :-) (I do like the flavor of dried cilantro though; it’s just very mild).
August 20, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Laura
Plastic are great because I don’t run the risk of breakage every time I handle them, but they also cling so much to odors, so I generally prefer glass. That’s why I have so few; one can’t afford nearly as many glass leftover containers as plastic.
August 20, 2008 at 7:53 pm
kamelda
They also seem to cling to colors –at least where tomato products are concerned. I think the trick might be not to use them until cooling foods off, and not to use them in the microwave? But in many cases of course that defeats the purpose. Glass are so much prettier and I like using them more as I know plastic tends to leach into things; but yes- so much more breakable….
August 21, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Laura
Hm…it seems like I still have tomato-y residue (color and odor) even though I never microwave plastic unless I absolutely have to, just to loosen something so that I can finish defrosting/heating it on the stove. I don’t know. I should also issue a public advisory that unless you have a dishwasher you SHOULD NOT buy the popular silicone bakeware, esp. loaf pans that you intend to use for quickbreads and meatloaf alike. Same principle of odoriferous nastiness applies. I even tried the baking soda soak, which normally removes any odor, and that failed me; maybe a dishwasher’s high heat would do the trick. I confess I was elated when I found a small tear in the bottom of one of the (two) loaf pans, the one that was used for pasta and now is unusable for anything else. So I guess I’ll *have* to replace it with a metal or glass one. . . :p
August 22, 2008 at 1:09 am
Joy
“Even without coriander, which I’ve never owned. I just used dried cilantro..”
Ha! I just learned TODAY that they are one and the same! What a funny coincidence. :P This is from my new recipe program, Living Cookbook 2008:
“Chinese parsley is also called coriander, cilantro and dhania (fresh coriander in India). Cilantro is the fresh green leaves and stems of the herb coriander. It can be used to flavor Chinese and Indian recipes and can also be used in Mexican and southwestern cooking.”
August 22, 2008 at 2:20 pm
kamelda
Laura, I was wondering…. perhaps it’s housewife heresy… but do you think baking soda has its *own* unpleasant odor???? I thought I may have noticed an unpleasant sort of baking soda smell on things I had tried to deodorize that way, but can’t figure out if my nose is assigning a value to baking soda that doesn’t exist. (No really, I can smell it!)
Wow, more great information, Joy. Thanks!
August 22, 2008 at 3:22 pm
countrylane
This is a recipe that I do to make chicken enchiladas. Same result, just quicker and easier, at least for me:
chicken, cooked and cut into chunks
rice, cooked (amount depends on how much you want left over to use for some other meal)
shredded mexican cheese
salsa
large tortillas, you may try any flavor that you wish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a baking dish, 9x13inches, with non-sticking spray or butter it down.
Mix salsa, chicken, cheese, and rice in a bowl. Spoon a big dallop in the middle of each tortilla. Roll up and place in baking dish. You can squeeze 6 to 8 in the dish. Spread some salsa on top of the tortillas, and sprinkle some cheese on top of the salsa. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. Voila’!
Serve with sour cream and/or guacamole.
Thanks for your recipe! Think I’ll make some tonight!
August 23, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Laura
I figure that if cilantro and coriander come from the same plant, adding double the amount of one should do, right? Probably not the best logic, but, you know…
Heidi, I have always heard that baking soda is odorless and absorbs odors. And it’s definitely the last food in the container that I still smell. But perhaps.
Adding rice is a good idea, and it seems pretty authentic from what I can remember of enchiladas in various Mexican places. I’ll take sour cream AND guacamole. :P