The key to making this dish “real food” is ensuring that the corn tortillas you use are 100% whole-grain. Reading food labels can be confusing as it is, but trying to figure out what products are truly 100% whole-grain is especially hard. Very few food labels say “whole corn” as the main ingredient so you either have to keep looking or make the tortillas yourself (with Masa Harina and a tortilla press). I’ve searched grocery stores high & low and was able to find one brand of corn tortillas that proudly states they are made with “whole corn.” They are located in the freezer section of Earth Fare next to the other frozen breads products and they are called: Food for Life Sprouted Corn Tortillas.
Chicken Enchiladas
Adapted from Rachael Ray on foodnetwork.com. Eat one casserole and freeze the other!
Ingredients
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1 whole chicken, rotisserie, or boiled
- 1 cup brown rice, cooked
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon chili powder, plus extra 1 1/2 teaspoons
- 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
- 3 cups tomato sauce, with no salt added if you can find it
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, grated
Optional Toppings / Add-Ons
- sour cream
- cilantro
- avocado
- guacamole
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
- Wrap corn tortillas in foil and warm in the oven while you prepare everything else.
- Shred cooked chicken using forks. Mix in 3 tablespoons tomato paste, ½ cup grated cheese, rice, frozen corn kernels (no need to defrost them), 1 teaspoon chili powder, and 1 teaspoon ground cumin.
- For the sauce combine 3 cups tomato sauce, cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder and heat through, keeping warm until needed.
- Remove tortillas from oven and switch on broiler to high. Now with most enchilada recipes you have to individually wrap up each tortilla with the filling, but why go through all of that effort when you can just layer it like lasagne and the end result still tastes the same?
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Using two separate square baking dishes ( or 2 round baking dishes) start to distribute the ingredients in the following order: 1. Sauce (spread a little out on bottom of baking dishes), 2. Tortilla layer (I used 2 for each tortilla layer), 3. About a quarter of chicken mixture (for each dish), 4. More sauce, 5. Another tortilla layer, 6. The rest of chicken mixture, 7. Another tortilla layer, 8. The last of the sauce, 9. Grated cheese on top.
- Now, for the extra casserole that you are going to freeze go ahead and stop here. Cover it, label it, and throw it into the freezer. When you decide to defrost it later then you can pick things back up with the last broiling step below (after it has been defrosted).
- Put the casserole under the broiler and broil for about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts and it is heated through.
Serve with cilantro, avocado/guacamole and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
Nutrition Facts
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I cook for the Food Bank Volunteers in my area. I made these for them yesterday. I added epis (creole seasoning to the meat and onion mixture) and stuck to the rest of your recipe. They came out so moist and decadent. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Have made this many times and enjoy it. Instead of all the sauce/seasonings, I just mix salsa in with the chicken and add black beans for protein/fiber. A fast option (and you can add spices as needed) that turns it into a no-prep meal that can be made with fresh but ready ingredients.
How much salsa would you recommend?
The cinnamon ruined this recipe. Nobody in my family touched it.
Hi Amanda, I’m sorry that you didn’t personally like the cinnamon in this recipe. You can definitely omit it. – Nicole