Shortcut Green Chicken Enchiladas - Perfect for Your Americanized, Unauthentic Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!

This recipe doesn't pretend to be anything it's not - this is simply a super-fast casserole that shares a few similarities to chicken enchiladas. If you are Mexican, and were/are lucky enough to enjoy authentic enchiladas, this will not remind you of Mom's - or even Dad's.

But having issued the standard ethnic recipe disclaimer, I'll say, these aren't bad. As long as you choose a high-quality green sauce and a decently cooked rotisserie chicken, you should end up with a nice, easy, fast dinner.

Please buy some good cheeses and grate them yourself. You'll see me using a pre-grated Mexican cheese blend, which was me not wanting to waste a product sample I had received for a review (the verdict? Grate your own cheese!)

This low-quality video was posted on YouTube a long time ago, but for whatever reason was never posted here. In fact, I don't even have a decent photo of the final dish, which is why you see this crappy screen shot here. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese
8 oz cheddar cheese
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
3 cups green enchilada sauce
10 corn tortillas
2 tbsp hot sauce

Photo (c) Flickr user Sung Sook

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Chilaquiles - The Best Thing to Happen to Hangovers Since Menudo (the spicy soup, not the band)

As promised, here is my basic version of chilaquiles, a classic Mexican mixture of fried tortillas, cheese, and salsa verde, often made with eggs to produce one of the world's great breakfasts. Like all the great breakfasts of the world, it has been long touted as a superior hangover cure.

It's ability to revive the body, mind, and soul from the ravages of alcohol poisoning is reportedly second only to the famous Mexican soup, menudo. Since mendo takes much longer to make, and traditionally contains, among other things, brains, cheeks, tails, hooves, and other organs, I tend to prefer the chilaquiles as my remedy.

According to the extensive research I did regarding the name, and by that I mean the three minutes I spent on Wikipedia, the word "chilaquiles" is derived from the Nahuatl word chil-a-quilitl, which means "herbs or greens in chile broth."

I can't say how that particular recipe eventually became what you'll see here, but thankfully it did - I can't imagine a bowl of stewed greens in a chili broth would work as well after a late night out at Senor Diablo's Casa de Las Margaritas Grandes. Enjoy!



Ingredients for curing 2 hangovers:
5 eggs
3 corn tortillas
1/2 cup cheese
1/2 cup salsa verde
vegetable oil
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Check Out These Other Great South-of-the-Border Video Recipes:

Aunt Mary's Pollo en Crema

Pineapple Pork Al Pastor

Spicy Tomato Rice

Chicken Chili Verde


Margarita photo (c) House Of Sims' Flickr photostream

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Pineapple Pork Al Pastor - A Very Americanized Version of a Mexican Recipe Invented by the Lebanese

My all-time favorite fast food in the whole world is a Taco al Pastor. I live right next to the "Mission," which is San Francisco's Mexican neighborhood, and there are literally three or four taquerías per block selling this amazing treat.

It's a huge stack of thinly sliced pork, marinated in chili, pineapple juice, and other secret ingredients, piled up on a vertical spit and cooked rotisserie-style. The tender, aromatic meat is then sliced off and served on tortillas, usually with onions, cilantro, and a little hot sauce. It's too good to describe.This pork recipe is NOT a true al pastor (fyi: shepherd-style), but simply a nice, easy marinade using some of the same ingredients to fairly delicious results. The main ingredient is the pineapple juice, which not only gives the meat a great flavor, but also has enzymes that makes it very tender.Of course, I decided to use some pork tenderloin I had, which sort of defeats the purpose, but this marinade really pays dividends when using the much cheaper, and more traditional pork shoulder.One of the key spices is cinnamon, which is no surprise since the origins of this recipe trace back to Lebanese immigrants living in Mexico City, where they were clearly showing off their shawarma-rich heritage. Lamb shawarma is a similar preparation, and you can watch me do a faux-version of that here.This is one of those recipe that I just happened to have the camera on as I cooked. I didn't measure things, I forgot to film the cinnamon addition, and never even added cumin, another traditional spice. Nevertheless, it was wonderfully tender and tasty, and I'm happy to share it with you, flaws and all. Enjoy!

Note: Vimeo is still having sound issues, sorry.



Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloin
6 oz pineapple juice
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp chipotle
2 dried chiles Pasilla, seeds discarded
3 dried chiles Guajillo, seeds discarded
cayenne to taste
cumin, optional
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp white vinegar
salt to taste
vegetable oil for grilling

View the complete recipe

Al Pastor Photo (c) Flickr user Alaskan Dude

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Aunt Mary's Pollo en Crema - Sorta Salvadorian Chicken Stewed in Cream

Aunt Mary's was a popular brunch restaurant here in San Francisco that served a wonderfully homey array of Mexican and Salvadorian dishes. Michele and I used to go every Sunday for a late breakfast (that's what brunch used to be called). She would always get the Huevos Rancheros, and my usual was the Pollo en Crema, which is the subject of today's video recipe.

Sometimes it's fun to cook a recipe that ignores the standard techniques that usually rule the production of my food. This recipe is a simple boiled chicken - no browning, no deglazing, no reducing, and no layering of flavors. As you'll see, you just toss all the ingredients into a pot and simmer it until tender and delicious.

My standard ethic recipe disclaimer applies; I'm not, nor have I ever been, Salvadorian. This is what I used to get at a restaurant that claimed to serve Salvadorian food, and they called it Pollo en Crema. I'm sure those of you in the know will point out if, and how, this varies from the "real" authentic recipe, but what I can tell everyone is that this simple pot of chicken is great food. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 big chicken
1 onion
2 red bell pepper
2 jalapeno
2 Roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
cayenne
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 cup sour cream, or Mexican crema
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
fresh chopped cilantro

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Back By Popular Demand: Robert Rodriguez Does Puerco Pibil

Gee, if I knew the reviews of RR's cooking skills were going to be so great I wouldn't have featured him! As you know, I work alone, but I guess I can share the spotlight for one more day. Here is something called Puerco Pibil, which I've never made, or know anything about, so I'll let Chef Rodriguez take it from here. Enjoy!

(Rated NC-17)

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Chicken Chili (or Chile) Verde - Celebrating the Mysterious Tomatillo

During culinary school I worked at a Mexican restaurant in Saranac Lake, NY, called Casa Del Sol. Which, as we used to joke, means "Casa of Sol." My favorite dish was the Chile Verde. Large chucks of pork shoulder simmered slowly in an exotic green sauce of tomatillos and chilies. The tomatillos we used were caned - and I was fascinated by the mysterious tomatillo graphics that decorated the label - but it wasn't until I arrived in California that I saw the real thing.
What an odd vegetable, or is it a fruit? As you will see in video, it sort of looks like a green tomato, which it isn't. It has this strange, veiny, paper covering, like a giant green gooseberry - and the flavor is even more perplexing. It's sort of tart, kind of sour, with hints of citrus and green apple. I sound like one of those wine geeks (no offense). Paired with sweet onions, and savory chicken, this recipe a great way to experience tomatillos for the first time.

The real way to spell this recipe is "Chile" verde, not "Chili" verde. But, both spellings are used, and since this particular recipe is more about the chicken simmered in spicy sauce, than the green peppers, I used the Americanized "Chili." Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut up in 6 pieces
8 tomatillos
2 jalapenos
6 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro
3 cups chicken stock
1 onion
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 lb potatoes
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
yogurt or sour cream

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Dulce de Leche - How a Sweet Mistake by an Argentinean Maid, or a Night Watchman at a Dairy, Produced the World's Most Popular Caramel Sauce

Dulce de leche means "milk candy," and it's basically a thick caramel-like syrup made from slowly cooking milk and sugar. It is extremely popular throughout Latin America, and pound for pound, it's the world's most popular caramel confection.

Legend has it that a maid was making "lechada," a traditional boiled milk and sugar drink, and she forgot all about it. A few hours later she returned to find the pot bubbling with a thick caramel-colored syrup…dulce de leche was born. I'm sorry, but there is nothing worse than a boring "how this recipe was invented legend." Here's my version.

In 1836, an Argentinean dairy caught fire when it was hit with a bolt of lightning, during a terrible thunderstorm. The night watchman, Juan Manuel de Rosas, ran next door to the general store, "Walmartes" to grab a sack of salt, which in those days was commonly used to smother and put out fires. He accidentally grabbed a bag of sugar and began throwing handfuls everywhere. But, he was too late and the fire ended up burning down half the dairy. He panicked, stole a horse, and road out of town, never to be seen again (although rumors circulated that he moved to Peru and opened a shoe store).

When the firemen entered the building they found several pots of sugar-dusted milk that had slowly cooked near the fire. As the pots where being moved to start the clean-up, some of the mixture splashed on someone's hand, was licked off, and dulce de leche was born. Now that's a legend! I hope you try this simple and amazing sauce. Enjoy!

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