Healthy Chicken Enchiladas

I found this recipe in a Mexican Cookbook I have and since I was looking for something new I went for this recipe. Chicken Enchiladas are something I always order when I go out to Mexican restaurants and it's something I will still do because making them at home was simple but time consuming. For the sauce I used a standard Mexican Red sauce or salsa roja. This sauce can be used as a taco topping or even a dip for chips. To make the dish a little healthier I only used chicken breast meat, I cut down on the cheese, and used whole wheat tortillas. For garnish I whipped up a little guacamole, a black bean and quinoa salad and bought a bag of tortilla chips for some crunch in the final dish.

Ingredients:

1 batch of Salsa Roja (below) or 1 jar bought enchilada sauce
1 cup grated cheese like monterey jack or cheddar
3 cups shredded pre-cooked chicken
salt and pepper
12 tortillas

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450

2. In a bowl mix 1/4 cup of enchilada salsa and 1/4 cup cheese with the chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Coat 1 tortilla in sauce by dipping it right into the pan of warmed sauce. Place on a plate and put about 1/4 cup of chicken filling. Roll up. Repeat until filling and tortillas are gone. Place each one in a 9 x 13 baking sheet.

4. Spoon the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top of the rolled tortillas and sprinkle with some of the remaining cheese. Bake for 20 minutes of until heated through and bubbling.


Salsa Roja

6 large, ripe tomatoes
3 serrano chiles
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 of an onion, chopped
salt and pepper

1. Place the tomatoes and serrano chiles in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the tomato skins are peeling off and the tomatoes are soft but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Removes tomatoes and chilies with a slotted spoon and let cool for a few minutes, then peel off the tomato skins and stem and seed the chiles.

2. Puree the tomatoes, chilis, and chicken stock in a blender and set aside.

3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Saute the garlic and onion until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato mixture and cook, stirring until liquid has evaporated and sauce has thickened slightly.

-my tweek on this recipe is at the final step, I blended everything together because I didn't like the chunk of the veg. for the final enchiladas.

Salmon Nigiri (Sushi)

I've always wanted to make sushi. It's such an art and I love sitting at the sushi bar and watching the chefs do their thing! After stumbling upon some California sushi rice for cheap and watching the movie "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" I was ready to take on the difficult task of sushi. 

My attempt was yummy but I can tell it didn't have the subtlety of good sushi. I used the freshest salmon I could find and tried to keep it simple. The recipe below is from Alton Brown and it's a very basic sushi rice.

I suggest (request) watching his videos on making the sushi rice and rolls. Before I made my sushi I watched as many how-to videos as possible to try to get the technique down. It's difficult to read about the technique so watch the videos or pay attention the next time you eat sushi. I can't wait to make more batches of sushi and hopefully make it like a master one day!

Ingredients:

For Rice:

2 cups sushi or short grain rice

2 cups water, plus extra for rinsing rice

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

Salmon or any other fresh, high quality fish

Prepared Wasabi

Soy Sauce

Pickled Ginger

Directions:

1. Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water. Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is clear.

2. Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

3. Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds. 

4. Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and add the vinegar mixture. Fold thoroughly to combine and coat each grain of rice with the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature before using to make sushi or sashimi. Cover with a warm, wet towel while the rice cools.

5. While the rice is cooling, cut your fish into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick and about 2 inches wide. Try to use one smooth knife stroke, don't saw the fish or you will destroy it. You want the fish to fit in someone's mouth in one bite so don't make it too big! Cover the fish in saran wrap and keep in fridge until you are ready.

6. Putting the nigiri together: Wet your hand with water so rice doesn't stick. Take a small amount (enough for a good bite) and shape into an oval using gentle pressure. (Jiro says the pressure should be like holding a baby chick). You want the rice to stick together but don't crush it. Once you have your rice oval, take a dab of prepared wasabi and spread it on the fish. Place the fish on top of the rice and use gentle pressure to adhere it to the rice. Then place your finished piece on a serving plate. Repeat as many times as necessary until you have enough pieces for everyone. Serve immedietaly with soy sauce, wasabi, and ginger.

Garlic-Ginger Chicken Marinade

I was in the mood to make a simple dish so I whipped up this Asian inspired marinade. You can marinade it for 2 hours or as long as overnight. 

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breast

1 cup thinly sliced onion

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced ginger

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup fresh orange juice (or pineapple juice)

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Combine the chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, orange juice and 1 teaspoon pepper in a large measuring cup. reserve 1/4 of the marinade and add the rest to a plastic bag containing chicken. Seal and shake to coat the chicken with the marinade. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat a grill to medium high and oil the grate. Grill the chicken skin-side down until marked, 5 to 6 minutes. Flip and continue to grill until cooked through, about 5 more minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Cabuto Family Mole Sauce

Veronica and Rocio Cabuto, my past baby sitters, came over one day and made Mole (pronounced mole-ay) for me and my cousin! It was a ton of fun and I learned a really great recipe, what more can you ask for? The tip that Veronica gave me while making this sauce was that "everything is fried in oil and blended". It sounds super simple but when you see how many ingredients go into this dish, you'll realize how much work is involved in making a mole. But all that work is worth is because you get such a complex and delicious sauce, I've never tasted anything like it.

I am making one tweak to this recipe (sorry Cabuto family!!!) but the mole was a little sweet for my taste so I added just a little less chocolate to this recipe. The original recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 disks of the mexican chocolate but in the future I plan to use only 1 disk. This way it will still be sweet but a little more balanced to my palette.

Tips to make this recipe-
1. don't be afraid to lower the heat so things don't burn. If anything burns, you have to throw it out and start again because the burned taste will ruin the entire sauce.
2. make sure to wipe out the pan between ingredients to make sure nothing remains behind in pan that can burn.
3.  Change the amount of chicken stock depending on how thick you want your sauce. I like to make a more concentrated version in the blender, freeze it, and then thin it out later when I'm ready to serve

Ingredients:
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 red onion, medium sliced
5-6 garlic cloves
3 large dried ancho chilis, seeds removed
5 dried arbol chilis, seeds removed
2 1/2 oz bag of dried guajillo chilis, seed removed and reserved
1 disk Mexican chocolate (brand: Ibarra, disk is 3.1 oz)
white bread- 3, 1 inch slices of a bread that is about 2-3 inches wide
1 corn tortilla
1 9/16 oz package of sesame seeds
3 whole cloves
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 small stick cinnamon
1 T black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/2 T. chicken bouillon
2-4 cups Chicken Broth (homemade is recommended and that recipe is below, make in advance)
Canola Oil, A good blender! 

Directions:
1. Fry everything seperately in oil in a saute pan and then put in the blender. Here it is step by step:
2. Slice red onion. place into a saute pan with 1-2 Tbs canola oil and fry over medium heat for about five minutes or until golden brown.
3. Peel garlic and keep cloves whole, cook in same saute pan with a little oil until garlic is golden brown.
4. Using a pair of kitchen scissors, remove all the seeds from the dried chilis but reserve the guajillo seeds. Toast each pepper over low heat in oil until they are slightly "puffed" or colored.
5. Toast almonds in oil while constantly stirring.
6. Toast bread slices in oil. cube once toasted and put into blender.
7. Toast tortilla in oil until golden brown.
8. Toast whole cloves in oil
9. Toast sesame seeds in oil
10. Toast Peanuts in oil (notice the pattern emerging haha)
11. Toast guajuillo seeds over low heat
12. Toast cinnamon stick in oil
13. Put all of the toasted ingredients into the blender. You can add ingredients to the blender as you go, whatever system works best for you and your kitchen.
14. Add cumin, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, and 1 cup of the chicken stock. Blend everything together until it has a smooth consistency. You may need to add more chicken stock to help the blender get through all the ingredients.
15. Crush chocolate a little and add to blender. Using hot chicken broth makes this step a lot easier.
16. Once the sauce is really well incorporated you can remove it from the blender, put into small batches and refrigerate or freeze.

When you're ready to eat the mole here's how to heat it up:
1. Add some mole sauce concentrate to a pan. Cook over medium heat, adding more chicken stock to get your desired consistency.
2. Add pre-cooked meat like chicken to sauce. Cook chicken in sauce for about 5 minutes to heat through and then serve!
3. We ate our chicken mole with Spanish Rice which is a dish that will appear in another post.


CHICKEN BROTH RECIPE
This is a simple home made chicken broth. Veronica and Rocio think it's very important to make the broth so I'm going to do it : )

Ingredients:
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/2 garlic bulb, not peeled
1 gallon water
5 pieces raw chicken or leftover chicken parts from whole chickens
2 T salt

Directions:
1. combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Cook over low heat for 40-50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Strain liquid and keep your broth!

You can use the cooked chicken in your mole sauce or for leftovers another day!

Spanish Rice

Spanish rice is a really yummy side dish that makes plain rice really special. 

Liquid to Rice Ratio: Liquid should cover rice so you may need to add more chicken broth to the rice at the end, after you've made the tomato sauce. The rule of thumb is that the rice should be covered by about 1/4-1/2 inch of liquid on top. 1 cup of rice will need about 2- 21/4 cups of chicken broth.

Ingredients:
Rice- mahatma or blue ribbon brand work best
Chicken Broth- homemade is best
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled but kept whole
3 tomatoes, roughly sliced
1 tsp. chicken bouillon
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper
canola oil

Directions:
1. Saute onion and garlic in a saute pan over medium heat with 1 tbs. oil. Cook for about 3-5 minutes or until onions and garlic are softened.

2. Add tomatoes to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.

3. Add salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, cumin, oregano, and 1/2 cup chicken broth to pan. Cover and cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes or until everything is softened.

4. In another pan, toast 1 cup of rice in 1 tbs. canola oil over low heat. Toast for about 5 minutes of until rice is browned all over. Keep stirring the rice so it doesn't burn.

5. Add tomato mix and 1 cup of chicken broth into a blender and puree until very smooth.

6. Add tomato sauce to the toasted rice. You may need to add extra chicken broth to make sure the liquid to rice ratio is right. Cover pan, reduce heat to low, and cook until liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked through.

Roasted Chicken with Adobado

This recipe is from the Rick Bayless website. I made a few klein and dine tweaks to it of course. Rick Bayless is one of my favorite chefs and he specializes in traditional mexican food.  I love using his dishes to get an authentic mexican meal in my own home. 

The adobado is multi-purpose. it can be used as a  marinade or as a sauce! Just reserve 1/2 cup of the adobado sauce before marinating the chicken.You don't want to eat the adobado after it's been sitting with the raw chicken for a few hours. 

I served this dish with the Quinoa and Black Bean Salad since it tastes like a healthy version of rice and beans! The recipe can be found here- http://kleinanddine.blogspot.com/2012/07/black-bean-and-quinoa-salad-with-cajun.html

 Ingredients

  Red Chile Adobo (Adobado) Marinade (makes about 2 cups of marinade)

2 1/2 tablespoons canola oil

3 medium dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into flat pieces
2 arbol chiles, steamed, seeded and torn into flat pieces

2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, preferably fresh-ground Mexican canela
A pinch of cloves

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/6 cup cider vinegar
Salt

4 chicken breasts
1 large lime
1/4- 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. brown sugar (if necessary)

Directions:

1.   Make the marinade.  Heat 1 tbsp. of the oil in a medium skillet over medium.  When hot, oil-toast the chiles a couple of pieces at a time until aromatic and blistered, a few seconds per side.

2. Remove to a bowl.  When all are toasted, pour in 3/4 cups hot tap water; weight with a plate to keep the chiles submerged.  Let rehydrate for about 20 minutes. 

3. Lightly toast the garlic over low heat in the same chili oil. Add to blender. Also add the pepper, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, vinegar and a generous tablespoon salt - it is critical that this marinade be salty since it seasons all the chicken.

4. Pour the rehydrated chiles, liquid and all, into the blender.  Process to a smooth puree.  Press through a medium-mesh strainer set over a bowl to remove bits of skin and stray seeds.  Taste  the abodabo sauce, it should be spicy, sharp and salty.  The consistency should be like steak sauce - not as thick as ketchup, not runny like hot sauce.

5. Marinade the chicken. Add chicken breasts to a plastic bag and cover with 3/4 of the marinade. Make sure chicken is covered everywhere with marinade. Allow to marinade for 2 hours in the fridge and up to overnight.

When you're ready to cook:
1. Preheat oven to 375. Cover a pan with aluminum foil and place chicken on it. Put a thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken. Place chicken in oven and cook until chicken reaches 155 degrees.


2. While chicken cooks make any side dishes and work on sauce. Add reserved adobado sauce to a new sauce pan. Add 2 tsp. lime juice and 1/4 cup heavy cream. Taste and check for seasoning. Add salt and pepper or some brown sugar if the sauce is to acidic or spicy. Heat through over medium flame right before serving chicken.

3. Remove chicken from oven when it hits 155 and cover with aluminum foil. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Reheat sauce and side dishes. Serve everything together!