Chicken Enchiladas

I am really loving this cooler weather. Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it - the smell of fresh apples, the colors of the leaves changing, pumpkins everywhere, hot apple cider, sweatshirts and jeans, and being able to use my oven without it making my house 95 degrees inside (no, this is not an exaggeration, it was 93 degrees in here a little over a week ago). I seriously could spend an hour just taking pics of apples bc I think they're so fantastic! But, I'm not posting a recipe for apples, not yet anyway. I'm here to talk about chicken enchiladas.

This isn't a recipe, so to speak. I just kinda throw some stuff in my cast iron pan and call it good 'nuf. Dump some in, taste. Not right? Dump some more in. It works. ;) I mean, hey, everyone's tastes are different. You might like your mouth to feel as though it were on fire after you take a bite of your enchilada. I, on the other hand, like to be able to feel my taste buds while I'm eating so I chose to back off a little on the cayenne. Either way, you can pretty much do what you want with this to make it all your own.

Ingredients:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
olive oil
1 red pepper
1 sweet onion
a few garlic cloves
salt
1 TB cumin
2 tsp dried cilantro
1/8-1/2 tsp powdered cayenne
red sauce
corn or flour tortillas
toppings of choice - lettuce, tomato, sour cream, ranch, black olives, cheese, etc.

Okay, so first you want to heat up your cast iron pan and pour a little bit of oil in the bottom to coat it. Add your chicken breasts and enough water to cover them about half way up. Put a lid on and let them cook until done completely. Cut/shred them up and put them back in the pan.

Now, cut up the onion and pepper and add those, along with the spices and garlic. Put a lid on it again and turn down the heat to low and let it simmer so the pepper and onion get slightly soft.





While that's going on, preheat your oven to 400, and make up your red sauce in a separate pan. I think the recipe says to let that simmer for awhile but it's not really necessary so don't worry about it.

Add a few scoops of your red sauce to the chicken mixture.



Get your tortillas and a 9x13 pan.



Put a spoonful or two of the chicken mixture into each tortilla, roll it up, and place it into the dish. Make sure you line them up so you can fit at least 10-12 in there (unless you're using really big tortillas).



Pour red sauce all over the enchiladas. I prefer less sauce than what I used for this photo. Go with whatever you prefer. If you are using cheese, now would be the time to put that on there also.

Put the dish in the oven, uncovered, and bake for about 15 minutes or until the tortillas are nice and hot.


Once that's all done, dish them out onto a plate and cover in toppings. MMM....



I'm sure you've realized by now that we get more use out of our ice cream maker than any other person out there who owns one. Just getting my money's worth, ya know. ;) So, it will not come as a shock that we had homemade ice cream with baked cinnamon apples and pears. They are so easy - peel and slice some apples and pears and place them in a glass dish. Sprinkle some lemon juice over them, along with 1 tsp or so of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, some honey or sugar, and a few slabs of butter. Cover and bake until soft.


It's not a good idea to have a second helping of this stuff. Not that I'm speaking from experience, it's just something I heard... :)