Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce

Here's the deal: these are the best chicken enchiladas I've ever had. I also have no real recipe for them. I vary it every single time, and every single time it's delicious. My amounts are pure "guesstimation" each time. Be brave! Go forth and conquer the enchiladas! Viva la Guesstimation!

The nice thing about this dish is that it can easily be modified to make more or less. It really will just depend on how many tortillas you have, because you can be as generous or as stingy as you want with your other ingredients. Also, I've been known to eat a tortilla (or three) while I'm making this. Don't judge. You might do the same thing someday.

Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce
Note: This dish can be made gluten-free (GF) easily
 

- Chicken

- Tortillas (I prefer handmade flour but also make this with corn to be GF)

- Chicken broth (I use Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth because it's GF and tastes GREAT. Note, however, that the box looks like a Tazo Chai Tea Concentrate box. And yes, I've accidentally made enchiladas with a splash of chai tea, and tried to make chai tea with broth. Thanks for reminding me.) 

- Flour (when I make this gluten-free, I use Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Flour)

- Butter

- Sour cream (I use Daisy Light, because that's what we always buy)

- Cream cheese, if desired

- Grated cheese (Cheddar or Monterrey Jack taste great)

Cook some chicken (I told you... no real amount. I use whatever I have on-hand for this-- the last time I made enchiladas I used some extra chicken from the Perfect Roasted Chickens I'd made the night before. This is a GREAT way to use up leftover chicken.) and shred it. For 20 enchiladas, though, if I was making chicken specifically for this, I'd probably cook 3-4 breasts, depending on their size. You can boil chicken, broil chicken, roast chicken, bake chicken, grill chicken, or buy rotisserie chicken for this. It will taste great no matter what.
 

Melt butter (for 20, I used one 1/2 cup stick) in a large pan for the roux.

Add flour (for 20, I used about 1/2 cup) to the butter and stir until it thickens and browns. Inhale. Mmm... I love that smell!

Add chicken broth to the roux (I used around one 32 oz box of chicken broth for the 20 enchiladas).

Stir, stir, stir away! Let it thicken, and then add some sour cream. I had around 12 oz in my refrigerator, so I added... 12 oz. If I have the full 16 oz container, I'll usually add it all. Instead, I threw in 4 oz of cream cheese that was going to go south (as in, all the way to Mexico) if I didn't find some use for it in the next two weeks or so. Get the sauce all nice and bubbly.

Remove the pan from heat so the sauce won't be so ridiculously unbearable to touch when it comes time to assemble the enchiladas.

Grease your pan(s). I spray Pam in 2 9x13 pans, but you can use any size pan you want. I sometimes have to shove the last few enchiladas in my pan, but it really depends on the size of your tortillas, the type of tortillas (flour or corn), and how much filling you put in each enchilada.

Dip one tortilla at a time in the sauce-- it will be HOT. I let mine cool a tiny bit, but you need it to be hot enough to soften the tortillas a bit so they don't tear (corn tortillas tend to tear anyway. You can alleviate this some by softening your tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds. Drinking a margarita or two will also help. It's a moral support thing.).

Add chicken and grated cheese to the left side of each tortilla and then roll it from left to right.  I use around 1/8-1/4 cup of filling usually... again, there's no rules here. Be wild! Go loca! Place the filled tortilla seam-side-down in your pan.

I can easily fit 8 Central Market homemade tortillas across and then 2 to fill in the bottom.

Continue this process with all of your tortillas.

Pour any leftover sauce on top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Enjoy! 

Bon Appétit doesn't seem quite appropriate with a Mexican dish, but seeing as how I speak French and not Spanish, it's what you get. Deal with it. Plus, this dish is more Tex-Mex, and this is how I roll in Texas.

Bon Appétit!