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
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Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
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Wrap corn tortillas in foil and warm in the oven while you prepare everything else.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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 omitted the cinnamon and made one batch with chicken and one batch with ground meat. Both were AMAZING! My kids have NEVER liked enchiladas…until now!
Great Sunday dinner! My kids loved it. I served it with refried beans.
Wish I would have left out the cinnamon. The recipe was okay with it but I feel like it could have been really good without it.
Is the sauce supposed to have 1 1/2 teaspoons of chili powder or cayenne pepper? The ingredients list has cayenne pepper, but then it says chili powder in the directions. Thanks!
Hi Colleen – Sorry for the confusion, I have updated the recipe with the proper amounts. – Jason
This is a very yummy recipe and we do prefer it without the cinnamon. My question is what are the directions for baking the frozen one? I want to give to a cousin that just had twins, but not sure what directions to give her. Thanks!
Hi Brittany. This is a handy guide that I use all the time: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/cooking/tips/a17357/thawing-reheating-frozen-food/.
Very disappointed. I made this last night and it was just awful. I am not sure what I did wrong. It basically came out tasting like hot tomato. No other seasonings were detectable. The chicken and sauce were so bland. No idea what I did wrong. I followed the instructions to the last letter. :(
My family doesn’t like corn tortillas. Can you substitute flour? If so, any adjustments to the recipe?
Hi Sondra. This will help: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/05/26/recipe-whole-wheat-tortillas/.
Hi, is the recipe for 2 casseroles or does it need to be doubled if making 2? Thanks!
Hi Lara. Lisa uses 2 round or square pans for this recipe. No need to double.
Any idea on the calorie count on this recipe? Eating it right now…. Delicious!
Please note that counting only calories is not a way of healthy eating. But if you want to know it, I checked it it for you. Estimated amounts without optional ingredients:
– whole recipe: 4082 kcal
– 100g of recipe: 146 kcal
– 1oz of recipe: 41 kcal
I don’t have time to read through all the threads to see if this has already been asked, but what size pans do you use? I used a couple 9X13 pans and they were too big. I did not have as many layers as you did, nor did I have enough filling to make the two pans complete. But it was very delicious!! I only put 1 tsp cayenne in, because my kids don’t like a lot of spice, but they still found it spicy, but liked it!
We’ve used cake rounds or 8×8 squares.
Pork carnitas instead of chicken::
I’ve made this many times and keep frozen cooked brown rice in the freezer to speed up prep time. This time I used leftover pork carnita from this site (btw is super easy and oh so delicious) instead of chicken. I didn’t add any spices to the meat mix just the tomato sauce. I also made extra corn tortillas (from this site as well) to make this casserole. Prep time was total about 5 minutes using those already made ingredients. It was super yummy with the pork as well!
Note: I always bake it at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until bubbly with broiling a few more minutes after I’ve taken off the foil and added cheese. I am usually using cold ingredients when assembling so just broiling doesn’t heat through.
Should the rice measure 1 cup before or after cooking?
After. :)
All 4 adults and 2 of the 12 children ate it, left out the corn (dietary restriction) reduced cayenne to 1/2 tsp. Baked covered on 350 for 25 minutes. Next time I will leave out the cayenne entirely.
Great recipe! How long will the casserole freeze for?
Hi. This will help: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/freezing/how-long-you-can-freeze-foods.
The cinnamon ruined this recipe. Nobody in my family touched it.