Green Cheater Enchilada Recipe

Growing up my mom would always make such wonderful food. My sister and I learned a lot from watching and helping her; we learned about reading recipes, making up our own and how to find them. I remember growing up my mom would make us enchiladas. Sometimes she would make them with beef and red sauce or with chicken and green sauce. Sometimes she would roll each tortilla then other days she would make them "cheater". Either she would cut up the tortillas in little squares or use a bag of chips. She would use whichever method that was most convenient for her at that time.

I have been making enchiladas since I have been on my own, practically a decade now. I have always rolled them. This is a time consuming process as you have to fry each tortilla, make the stuffing, fill it, and lay them out in the pan and bake it. When I was living on my own I never made them the "Cheater" way. I always rolled them. Today on the other hand I did not have time for all that process.

Today we went out to get a new bed for us. We have been sleeping on a twin, the two of us, and he has a hard time sleeping even when he is by himself let alone sharing a twin with another grown up. Me on the other hand can sleep standing up if I needed to. I have been sleeping just fine. We had decided we were going to go get the bed then go grocery shopping then I was going to make the green enchiladas, seeing as its St. Patrick's day and all. By the time we got home it was a half an hour past the baby's bed time and we were all tired and hungry. I decided it was time to pop my "cheater" enchilada cherry tonight!

The first thing I did when I got home was get my ingredients together and cup up the tortillas and throw them in the pan with some oil. I used two chicken breasts, diced them and put them in a second pan. While those are cooking I chopped up the garlic, green onions and cilantro.

Once the chicken is cooked add the cilantro, green onions and garlic. It is always best to season before you add sauce. I like to use salt, pepper, red chili flakes and a little bit of cayenne pepper for this recipe. The tortillas should be getting nicely browned and slightly crispy. I only added salt to the tortillas because all the ingredients are going to be combined later on.

Next I added the diced green chilies to the meat mixture.

Once all that is cooked together then its time to combine it with the tortillas.

Then I will put a little enchilada sauce in the bottom of the 9"x13" baking pan and pour the rest of the can in with the meat and tortilla mixture. Once its all combined then in to the baking pan it goes.

Then I top it with cheese. I would normally use monterey jack cheese but it was not on sale the the store yesterday so I got the mexican four cheese blend.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or till the cheese is melted and the edges are bubbly. It really shouldn't take too long because all the ingredients are already cooked and they just need to marry and melt. This gave me enough time to clean up the mess I made in the kitchen so it wasn't such a chore after we ate.

Once it is done, take it out of the oven and its time to eat. I have made this for everyone before for a birthday and they loved it. Aleks liked it more this time than ever before but his mom thought it was too spicy. It was a bit more spicy because of the red chili flakes and cayenne pepper. So if you like it a bit more mild then just put a little chili powder or no extra seasonings.

Below is the recipe if you would like to try this out for yourself.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

1 package corn tortillas
2 chicken breasts
1 28 oz can of green enchilada sauce
1 4 oz can of diced green chilies
4 stalks of green onions
1 head of cilantro
3 cloves of garlic
1 lb of mexican cheese

Cut up tortillas and cook in pan with oil. Dice chicken and cook in separate pan with oil. Add cilantro, green onions, garlic and seasoning to the chicken. Add diced green onions and mix. Combine meat with the chicken.

In 9"x13" baking pan put just a layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom and the rest on the meat tortilla mixture. Put mixture in the pan and add cheese on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes till cheese is melted and edges are bubbly. Serve and enjoy!