Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Sour Cream Enchilada

The layers of flavors and textures in this easy recipe make my mouth water every time I look at it!  The heat of Chimayo and Hatch green chile come in slowly from the back of the mouth and play off of the creamy cheese and sour cream.  But the best is tucked inside each bite – bits of caramelized onions!  Emma Christensen‘s description from The Kitchn is perfect:

Few things will skyrocket the flavor of your dish quite like caramelized onions. These tender, candy-sweet — yet savory! — morsels turn anything from a burger to a bowl of fresh pasta into something instantly, deliciously gourmet. Accept no imitations: caramelizing onions at home is easy to do. All you need is a few onions, a pat of butter, a pan, and some time.

What makes this recipe easy and delicious is 505 Southwestern‘s Green Chile Sauce mixed with sour cream.  Yumm!

ChimayoBefore I jump in to the recipe, I want to share this wonderful story, Chimayo’s Chile Culture in Saveur by Deborah Madison about a Chimayo, New Mexico, and the chile that bears its name.  Her beautiful description of Chimayo is a lovely word picture of northern New Mexico, the place where I grew up.  I love her explanation of the flavor of Chimayo chile and its origins.

Unlike larger, mass-produced chiles grown in other parts of the state—whose conformity makes them perfect in the way that iceberg lettuce is perfect—Chimayo chiles are unpredictable. A single plant might produce some chiles as long as six or seven inches and many more that are shorter; a few might be straightish and skinny, but most will be bent oddly into curlicues. Their irregularity seems to reflect the landscape, with its winding roads and dry-rock badlands juxtaposed with lush valleys and tiny fields.
But looks are only one way to judge this chile. Once it has ripened and been dried and ground, its perfume is remarkable—a particular mix of sweetness, richness, and spiciness—simultaneously grounding and exhilarating. It is piquant without being overbearingly hot, with a bite that offsets the complexity of its distinctive chile flavor.
Chimayo chiles are the same variety grown throughout northern New Mexico—a variety that has been around for so long that it’s known generically as native chile. No one knows for certain how these chiles first came to New Mexico to begin with, but one story is that the colonial entrepreneur Don Juan de Oñate brought them from Mexico in 1598 when he settled the area on behalf of the King of Spain.

Unfortunately, Penzey’s doesn’t list Chimayo on their website, but it is available at The Great American Spice Company and the Santa Fe School of Cooking.   It is worth the effort to find it and have Chimayo chile in your kitchen!

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Print Recipe
Layers of flavor make this a perfect meal for a Dutch oven gathering or a big family get together. To make it even easier and save some time, you can buy cooked chicken. If you do, make sure to add the Chimayo chile seasoning to add a warm spice heat to the dish.
Servings Prep Time
8-10 Hungry Friends 10 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8-10 Hungry Friends 10 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Print Recipe
Layers of flavor make this a perfect meal for a Dutch oven gathering or a big family get together. To make it even easier and save some time, you can buy cooked chicken. If you do, make sure to add the Chimayo chile seasoning to add a warm spice heat to the dish.
Servings Prep Time
8-10 Hungry Friends 10 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8-10 Hungry Friends 10 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: Hungry Friends
Instructions
  1. Place a 12-inch camp Dutch oven over a pile of hot charcoal. Add vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the oven. Add diced onions. Stir to coat the onions in oil, then stir every 5 minutes and make sure to scrape up the yummy stuff sticking to the bottom. You will need to remove or add charcoal underneath the oven to adjust the heat to prevent burning but to keep it cooking so the onion caramelizes. Remove from heat when the onions are dark brown and sweet.
  2. While onions are caramelizing, season the chicken breasts with Chimayo chile, salt, and pepper.
  3. Grill or cook the chicken until the internal temperature is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Let chicken rest for five minutes then cut into bite size pieces.
  4. Prepare sauce by mixing the green chile sauce with sour cream.
  5. Put together the enchiladas by placing a diced chicken, a spoon of caramelized onions, and shredded cheese in the center of a corn tortilla.
  6. Place the rolled enchilada seam-side down in a 16-inch camp Dutch oven.
  7. Pour sour cream green chile sauce over the rolled enchiladas. Use the back side of a large spoon to distribute the sauce evenly over the enchiladas.
  8. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese across the top of the enchiladas.
  9. Bake enchiladas at 350 degrees Fahrenheit by making a ring of 14 hot charcoals underneath the oven.....
  10. and 19-20 hot charcoals around the lid of the oven.
  11. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly and the center of the enchilada is hot. We added extra hot charcoal to the lid for the last five minutes to make the cheese brown up a bit.
  12. Serve with avocados, tomatoes, green onions, and lettuce.
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