Green Chicken Enchiladas

I don't know about you guys, but I'm still feeling the need for green after the holidays. All the better when you can get some green into a favorite cold-weather comfort food, like enchiladas. Yeah... I know the photo below exudes a cheesy goodness that would appear to go straight to your love handles, but all the rest of the contents are good for you stuff. Spinach (lots), poblanos and chicken... oh my!

I beg you to try making your own enchilada sauce. A freshly prepared sauce transforms this dish from weird potluck food to a full-flavored wonder. And not to brag, but these are better that many of the enchiladas I've had at sub-par Mexican joints (Chava's... cough, cough).

Unless you have a wood-fired oven in your home, you'll want to crank up the broiler to char your poblanos. They'll take on a smokey flavor and the skins will pop right off.

Those char-delicious-cooked poblanos will join up with fresh spinach in the blender to be the base of your enchilada sauce. 

You'll add in a warmed cream (or in this case, fat free milk) sauce and blend away. Don't forget to pop the top in order for steam to escape. Otherwise you'll blow the top and spend the next three days finding dried enchilada sauce all over your house. Science is a bitch. 

Admire your gorgeous green enchilada sauce before you get to stuffing those bad boys. So pretty, but wait you're hungry. Shredded chicken time. You can roast yourself or use leftover grilled chicken. Rotisserie chicken would totally work too. 

As promised, there's lots of green stuff. Chopped spinach adds more bulk and goodness to the enchilada filling.

Roll it all up in corn tortillas and arrange in a baking dish before pouring over that gorgeous, not-from-a-can sauce. No photoshop here, it's really that green. Photosynthesis.

Baked with cheese to finish the job. Dig in with less guilt knowing you're getting your greens.

Green Chicken Enchiladas
2 poblano peppers
10 oz fresh baby spinach, chopped
2 cups fat free milk
2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
6 tablespoons butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups shredded chicken
12 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded Chihuahua cheese
Chopped red onion and cilantro, for garnish

Heat broiler to high. Place poblanos on a sheet pan and put a few inches under the broiler. Watch closely and cook until skins turn black, then rotate. Once all sides are blackened, remove from oven. Place in a bowl and cover with a dish towel to cool. Use clean hands to remove blackened skins. Tear open and remove seeds and stem, discard. Roughly chop and put into jar of blender, along with one cup of chopped spinach.

Reduce oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium saucepan warm milk and chicken stock. In a separate large saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook just until fragrant. Sprinkle flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Slowly add milk mixture, whisking briskly to ensure there are no clumps. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Wrap tortillas in aluminum foil and put in the oven for 5 minutes. While tortillas warm, add half the warm sauce to the blender jar and cover. Remove vent in the lid and blend until smooth. Pour back into saucepan and stir in salt.

Line a 13x9 baking dish with aluminum foil and pour in one cup of sauce. Toss chicken in a bit of sauce and then stuff into tortillas with chopped spinach. Arrange tortillas tightly in baking dish and pour over remaining sauce. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake for 20 minutes, until cheese melts and slightly browns. Serve hot and garnish with cilantro and red onions. Enjoy!

*This recipe freezes beautifully, so I usually double up and make an extra pan.

Recipe adapted from Rick Bayless. 

Poblano Leek Soup

Do you ever have menu regret? You know, when you wish you'd ordered something at a a restaurant and can't stop thinking about it. Just me? Am I really that 1) neurotic and 2) obsessed with food? Well, the Husband and I went to Mexique on Saturday and had a delicious meal, but I wasn't quite hungry enough to take on their Poblano Leek Soup. So many pork distractions!

So what's a girl to do? I created it myself the next day. 

One of the things I love most about cooking is that you can take a basic recipe and make it your own with a twist or two. I started with Julia Child's Potato Leek Soup and simply added roasted poblanos. 

The ingredients are simple. Start with these lovelies and add just a bit of water, salt and cream.

Leeks have a wonderfully delicate onion flavor and are oh so versatile. They do take an extra prep step though. Since they grow in sandy soil and have many layers (just like my SOUL...get deep guys), they need a good rinse after slicing. Simply float in a big bowl of water and swish around. Let the sand settle and scoop out the leeks from the top of the bowl. 

For the poblanos, roast in a very hot oven until they look blistered and scary. I'm for realsies. 

When they are hot out of the oven, wrap in foil and put into a plastic bag. Close and allow to cool in the bag. The steam is a good thing... it will actually help the meat of the pepper separate from the skin.

Once the pepper has cooled, those peps will slip right out of their skin. Straight strippin'

Simmer potatoes and leek together in water for about 40 minutes, until everything tenders up.

Once the potatoes and leeks are cooked, add chopped poblanos and get after it with your immersion blender. You could also do this in a food processor or blender, but I was excited to use my new toy.

Garnish with a bit of cilantro to finish. Don't live with menu regret, figure it out on your own. You're smart like that. Also, menu regret doesn't seem like a productive use of time, am I right?

Poblano Leek Soup

1 large Russet potato, diced

4 leeks, trimmed, sliced and thoroughly rinsed 

2 poblano peppers (or 1 if you don't like to get too spicy)

5 cups water

1 tablespoon salt

4 tablespoons cream

Cilantro, chopped for garnish

Combine leeks and potatoes in a large dutch oven and simmer for 40 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 450. Roast poblanos until skin is blackened; about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove peppers from oven and wrap in aluminum foil and place in a sealed plastic bag. Once cooled, remove from bag and peel off skin using fingers. Slice off tops and discard stem and seeds. Roughly chop peppers. 

Once potatoes and leeks are tender, add poblanos and salt. Use an immersion blender to puree soup. Just before serving stir in cream. Garnish with cilantro and serve warm.