January 2012
When I saw this recipe, it immediately appealed to me
because it called for store bought rotisserie chicken. I love using rotisserie
chickens. Not that it is all that
difficult to drizzle some olive oil, salt and pepper over a whole chicken and
stick it in the oven myself, but rotisserie chickens have proved to be
lifesavers in several situations and using them eliminates multiple steps.
I like to use the “Naked Chicken” from Whole Foods as it has
no seasoning. In fact, I’m not even sure they put olive oil on it. The nakedness of it allows me to dress it up
however I like and not worry about any added flavors not playing nicely with
whatever my culinary intentions are. I purchased one with seasoning at Acme
once and it was actually really tasty in the chicken salad I made, but I like
the Whole Foods one best.
When I got to Whole Foods, I found that whole chickens were
actually on sale and $4.00 cheaper than the Naked Chickens. In an attempt to be
thrifty, and after I convinced myself I would be totally willing to find
multiple uses for the whole chicken, ie make homemade stock, I purchased the
whole, uncooked chicken.
Fast-forward to the day I was to make the enchiladas and I
found myself with no desire and/or time to cook the chicken. I was coming back from a long day of shopping
and simply could not be bothered. I stopped and picked up a rotisserie chicken
and stuck the whole chicken into the freezer.
These enchiladas were not my mother’s enchiladas. First off, they were green, and any memories
I have of my mother’s enchiladas are red. Second, they involved crème fraiche
and Emmental cheese. I was intrigued by the recipe’s lack of “a can of
enchilada sauce” and “shredded cheddar cheese”.
I’m also a total sucker for crème fraiche as well as any sort of Swiss
cheese.
I took the time to fry the corn tortillas before wrapping up
the filling in them. I worked at a
Mexican restaurant in college and I don’t remember ever seeing them do this
when they made enchiladas, but it certainly made the tortillas more pliable. I
also toasted whole cumin seeds and ground them up myself because I didn’t have
any ground cumin. I think toasting your spices always helps, but there were
other flavors that took center stage in this recipe besides the spices.
I brought these over to a friend’s house. We baked them off,
she made a salad, and we got to enjoy Girls on HBO with bellies full of green,
ethnic confusion. These enchiladas
tasted even better the second, third, and fourth time I ate them. Yup, I can
eat things multiple times and not grow tired of them. I don’t know if it’s a
skill I’ve developed or a natural gift, but it certainly helps if you are a
single that likes to cook large pots of things, but don’t always have people
around to feed.
No comments:
Post a Comment