Playing Chicken with an Enchilada

Cinco de Mayo, Part 3:

How exciting! A mere 16 days after Cinco de Mayo, I'm finally finishing my posting about my amazing Mexican meal! This last post revolves around the chicken enchiladas I made for myself. As you all may recall from Cinco de Mayo, Part 1, my husband is not a fan of large chunks of vegetables in his meals (large chunks of meat? no problemo -- how 'bout that Spanish??) =] So anyway, the chicken enchiladas were for me, because they had both large chunks of veggies and green chiles, something Adam wouldn't knowingly eat if he was starving to death. So, as with the rest of my meal, I purchased ingredients for the enchiladas and hurried home to start cooking. And thus began a series of mistakes that caused dinner to be delayed until 8 p.m. For starters, I purchased large chicken breasts -- not an issue. The fact that I thought they were BONELESS, split chicken breasts when in fact I had grabbed a package of skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts --definitely an issue. Needless to say, this caused a plethora of problems:

1. Bone-in chicken breasts cook really slowly. Much slower than say, the rest of the meal.
2. Bone-in chicken breasts means that at some point, I have to remove the bones in order to shred the chicken.
3. Getting stabbed with a chicken bone while doing the afrementioned shredding does not improve one's overall mood...especially well into one's third hour of standing over a hot stove.
4. Shredding chicken breasts and suddenly realizing that the inside was actually NOT completely cooked delays dinner even more
5. Shredding partially cooked chicken breasts really decreases the likelihood that I'll want to eat them eventually, cooked or not.
6. Finding a way to finish cooking partially cooked shredded chicken breasts means that I will need to get out and get dirty every pot, pan, bowl, and utensil that I own.
7. Getting out all the aforementioned equipment means that the task of cleaning up after dinner was akin to Hercules having to clean the Aegean Stables, without the benefit of having god-like powers and simply redirecting a river.

Anyway, in spite of many (and I do mean MANY) obstacles, this meal was really tasty and turned out pretty well in the end. I can also happily report that I did not contract salmonella from the chicken bone stab wound. I can also report that the chicken was (in the end) completely cooked and very tender and juicy. Still...lesson learned.

So here's the recipe. I highly recommend it. I also highly recomment carefully reading the packaging before purchasing chicken breasts.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
12 small chile peppers, diced (optional)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 pint heavy cream (I used half and half since I had some in the fridge)
6 (6 inch) corn tortillas
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken and onions until chicken is evenly brown. Stir in diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, stewed tomatoes, chile peppers, soup and broth. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover skillet, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
Remove chicken from skillet, and shred when cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, allow skillet mixture to simmer and reduce to about 2 1/4 cups. In a medium bowl, combine shredded chicken and about 1/4 cup skillet mixture (just enough to make a paste like mixture). Mix together with half the chopped green onions.
In a second skillet, heat cream over low heat, being careful not to boil. Dip tortillas in the warm cream to soften and coat. Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla. Top chicken mixture with half the shredded cheese, and roll up tortillas. Place rolled tortillas in a 9x13 inch baking dish, seam side down, and pour remaining 2 cups of skillet mixture over the enchiladas. Cover with remaining shredded cheese, and sprinkle remaining chopped green onion over cheese. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbling.