- Chicken Fajitas Enchiladas

Dear Friends of Hounds Who Cook,

Here is the recipe of the delicious dinner that we cooked up for sister Linda's 49th birthday this week. She still looks 40 to us. We saw the great amount of work this could be so we cooked the chicken the day before. Worked very well that way and the preparations went quickly.

Chicken Enchiladas
Me's independent rating: 2 of 3 (it has potential, I'd try it again with some changes for my taste, though the family loved this creamy version).

1 chicken boiled up in water
1 package of taco seasoning mix
4 oz sliced black olives
7 oz green chiles
1/2 small onion, chopped up
1 cup sour cream
20 6-inch flour tortillas
grated cheddar
arrow root (for thickening)
15 oz tomato sauce
7 oz picante sauce, or salsa
onion powder
garlic powder

Cook up the chicken the day ahead by rinsing it off and covering with water in a stock pot. Bring to boiling and cook 30 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Reserve the broth in jars in the fridge. Remove chicken from the bone and return bone, skin and cartilage pieces to the pan. Cover with water and bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes more. Reserve broth in bottles and discard bones and etc.

Shred or chop chicken and reserve about 3 cups for this recipe and set remainer aside for another use (like our Scientific Chicken Soup). Mix with taco mix, black olives, green chiles, and chopped onion. Add a little chicken broth to moisten mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup sour cream, reserving the rest for topping.

Spoon filling onto tortillas, adding grated cheese before rolling up, if desired. Place in 9x13 pan.

Heat 3 cups chicken broth in large frying pan. Thicken with arrowroot. Add tomato sauce and picante sauce. Season with onion powder and garlic powder. Pour over enchiladas in the pan, covering well. Cover with grated cheddar cheese.

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes, uncovered.

Mix 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup water together. Pour over enchiladas. Turn off oven and return pan to oven for 10 minutes to warm.

Eli's Notes: Well, the family loved this recipe, but we would health it up a bit - leaving out the sour cream and serving it, or plain yogurt, as a side for the dish. We also would eliminate green chiles because Me doesn't like them. We also think there's no harm in chopping up some more fresh onion and garlic for the sauce - and starting the sauce first to give it time for flavors to permeate before using.

Guthrie's Notes: All of this and we still had broth - and meat - leftover for chicken soup. That's the recipe to try. It's the best of all possible chicken soups. We call it scientific because they used it in a study that did indeed assure that chicken soup helps sick people heal faster.