Enchiladas with Creamy Roasted Poblano and Spinach Sauce

These were the best enchiladas I've ever tasted! The creamy roasted poblano and spinach enchilada sauce is what really puts them over the top.  I will be making this sauce all the time. It's also wonderful as a dip with tortilla chips.  I found the recipe here while I was looking for a recipe to use up some spinach and poblanos I had in the fridge.  The original recipe calls for 3 cups of chicken, and I used diced roasted sweet potatoes instead of chicken and also made some with just cheese and they were both amazing!

Enchiladas with Creamy Roasted Poblano and Spinach Sauce

Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba Style

adapted from Rick Bayless's website, originally from Cafe Tacuba

2 fresh poblano chile

1 cup (lightly packed) roughly chopped spinach leaves

2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth ( I used vegetable broth)

6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter—or you can use vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped (I used roasted garlic)
1/2 cup flour

Salt

3 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken (rotisserie chicken or leftover grilled chicken) (I used roasted sweet potato cubes in some and cheddar and colby jack cheese in some instead of the chicken, use whatever you like :) )

12 corn tortillas (I made homemade tortillas for these, totally worth the extra effort)

A little vegetable oil for brushing or spraying

About 1 cup Mexican melting cheese (Chihuahua, quesadilla, asadero or the like) or Monterey Jack, brick or mild cheddar

A little chopped cilantro for garnish

1. Make the sauce. Roast the poblanos directly over a gas flame...

or on a baking sheet 4 inches below a very hot broiler, turning regularly, until the skins have blistered and blackened on all side, about 5 minutes for an open flame, about 10 minutes under the broiler.

Place in a bowl, cover with a kitchen towel (paper towel worked fine) and, when handleable, rub off the blackened skin, tear open and pull out the seed pod and stem. Quickly rinse to remove any stray seeds or bits of skin.

Roughly chop and put in a blender jar. Add the spinach.

In a medium (3-quart) saucepan, combine the milk and broth, set over medium-low heat to warm. (I just warmed these in the microwave)

In a large (4-quart) saucepan, melt the butter (or heat the oil) over medium. Add the garlic (I used about half a head of roasted garlic) and cook for a minute to release its aroma, then add the flour and stir the mixture for a minute. Raise the heat to medium-high. Pour in the warm broth mixture and whisk constantly until the sauce boils. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Pour half the hot sauce into the blender with the chiles and spinach.

Cover loosely (I remove the center part of the lid, secure the lid, then drape a cloth over the whole thing) and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining sauce.

Taste and season with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons.  (I started with one and tasted from there, 2 seems like a little too much.)

2. Finish the enchiladas. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Smear about 1/4 cup of the sauce over the bottom of each of four to six 9-inch individual ovenproof baking/serving dishes or smear about 1 cup of the sauce over the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish. Stir 1 cup of the sauce into the chicken (sweet potatoes, for just cheese enchiladas I did not add extra sauce to the cheese, just rolled them up with cheese only and did sauce on top).

Lay half of the tortillas out on a baking sheet and lightly brush or spray both sides of the tortillas with oil; top each tortilla with another one and brush or spray those with oil. Bake just to warm through and soften, about 3 minutes. Stack the tortillas and cover with a towel to keep warm.

Working quickly so that the tortillas stay hot and pliable, roll a portion of the chicken up in each tortilla, then line them all up in the baking dish(es).

Douse evenly with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the enchiladas are hot through (the cheese will have begun to brown), about 20 minutes. Garnish with the cilantro and serve without hesitation.

~~~~~

I thought these were absolutely wonderful!  The homemade corn tortillas were amazing in this recipe. I used Rick's recipe for them using just Maseca and water and my new tortilla press and was so impressed. I usually prefer flour tortillas over corn, but these were just perfect for soaking in that delicious sauce and sopping it up. They did not get mushy like store bought corn tortillas and had a really nice toothsome texture after baking. So delicious!  I loved the gorgeous green color of the sauce before baking, it was so pretty. It darkened up a bit while baking but I just couldn't get over that soft mint almost seafoam green color.

Unfortunately my kids and picky husband wanted nothing to do with this dinner, not even the cheese ones, I was kind of anticipating that so made them something else instead as an option. Maybe next time I make these they will give them a try. I think if you took just one taste of this luscious sauce you would be a fan for sure :) Since I am the only enchilada fan I am linking these over to IHCC for their theme of the week, For Mom.  

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins

It's October 1st, time for some fall baking, right?  These savory treats are our pick for Club: BAKED today.  Thank you to Billie at Chocolate & Chakra, you can find the recipe for these muffins here at her site.  

At first I was a little nervous about these, even though I love both pumpkin and cheddar, I wasn't sure how well these would go over with my picky husband and semi picky kiddos...but I needn't have worried, these were delicious, and everyone, yep, even picky husband, thought they were very good.

I made them as mini muffins for breakfast, with some cider on the side and mulling spices boiling away on the stove.  My six year old daughter asked why it smelled like autumn in the house :) 

I decreased the baking time to 375 since my mini muffin tin is the dark metal kind and I know they tend to over brown things. They were just perfect! My other tiny change was to leave out the black pepper, the cayenne alone packed plenty of punch. I topped most with the cheddar and pepitas but had about 5 that I left without toppings since I had used up all of my extra sharp cheddar and I didn't feel like shredding any more.   Above is without toppings, below is with.  Both versions were great, but of course I liked the cheddar and pumpkin seed topped ones best.

Happy fall baking, everyone!



Chipotle Cheddar Bread

After all of the sweet treats I've been baking lately, I was in the mood for something savory and found this recipe in one of my mini cookbooks. After googling it, I found that someone posted on recipezaar, it really is an easy (one bowl!) and delicious savory quick bread.

Zesty Cheddar Bread
a Betty Crocker/Gold Medal Flour recipe

1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used extra sharp)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. (I baked this at 350!) Spray the bottom of a 9" loaf pan with cooking spray (I used Bakers Joy and sprayed the whole pan).

Combine the buttermilk, butter, sugar, chilies and eggs in a large bowl. Mix well. Add in remaining ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Spread in the loaf pan.


Bake 40-50 minutes (mine was perfectly done at 40 minutes at 350) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool 15 minutes on a wire rack before removing from the pan.

This bread was so delicious! I loved it warm with a little butter, and bet it would be great with a creamy potato soup or corn chowder. It had a nice crunchy crust and was still soft and tender inside. It had a little heat from the peppers, but wasn't overwhelmingly spicy. You could always leave out the chilies or only add 1 tbsp to lessen the heat if you have some sensitive palates you are cooking for.

This one is going into the make again file for sure. Recently I decided that I wanted to go through some cookbooks that I never use, and this recipe just caught my eye after randomly picking this book, Betty Crocker -- Gold Medal Flour, Soups & Breads off the shelf. Can't wait to see what other little recipe treasures I find in this one :)