Swiss Enchiladas

Ok, so I don't know if you know, but I am crazy about Mexican food (you will also find I am crazy about Japanese food, Thai food, French food, sweet food, cold food--you get the picture). Honestly though, I like my Mexican food which is sad, because I simply can't find Chicago quality Mexican food in New York. Strangely enough, a lot of them seemed to owned by Chinese. Which is fine, but not what you would expect. If you have any suggestions please let me know, although I do have pretty discerning taste when it comes to Mexican food. 

For instance, you know that Anthony Bourdain from the Travel Channel? He came to Bushwick (my hood) and declared  Tres Hermanos  (link way down below) to be the best tacos in New York. As much as I personally don't like the guy (he tries too hard), he was right. They were the best tacos that I have ever had in New York. I had the steak ones and they were so juicy. Eating the tacos was like a race against time, hurrying to eat them before the tortillas broke from all that moist flavor. They even make the tortillas onsite. I was very happy, but when it gets down to it--all they were regular tacos from Milwaukee Avenue. Real good but Chicago just makes it happen for me.


So loving Mexican food as much as I do, I decided to get down with some Enchiladas. Since I can't recreate that Chicago flavor I had to create some Pemmie's (how my husband refers to me) kitchen flavor. I made Swiss Cheese Enchiladas.  I know I'm a hypocrite--there is no Swiss cheese in authentic Mexican food, but please this is coming from a Filipino/German kitchen so authenticity has already been shot.


In case you want to follow,  these are the ingredients:

1 large choppedonion
1 rotisserie chicken
2 minced garlic cloves
2 cans 4.5oz diced green chiles (don't drain, also I used one spicy and one mild because I like my spice!)
1 can 14.5oz petite diced tomatoes undrained
2 cups milk (I used almond milk because I thought it would add to the nuttiness but you can do regular if that's too odd for you)
2 tablespoons of flour
salt
12 corn tortillas
2 cups of shredded swiss cheese


First, you have to really get down and tear the meat off that bird. It is nothing pretty to look at so no pic is included, but just know that I took care of it to the fullest extent. I then cooked the onion until it was almost soft, then I threw the shredded chicken in adding the garlic along with it. Once all of the aromatics have had 5-8 minutes of swimming in each others flavor and have fully seeped into the meat, add the chiles and tomatoes until you come up with all this beautiful yumminess.

I let the chicken mixture simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime, I throw the milk and flour in small pot and whisk away until it thickens--which always takes forever for me.  It is always suppose to only take 5 minutes but for some reason it is always a 15 minute affair for me. While I wait for this to happen, I make the most out of my time and heat the tortillas on the stove. Don't ever try to throw your tortillas in an oven or a microwave--it is just not right. Stove-top tortillas just get a nice smokiness to them and I like a little char. 

I get the swiss cheese shredded and it is beautiful. As I am shredding, I am tasting too and I am having trouble stopping. It is so nutty and will only taste better melted

To get this melting started, I start preheating the oven to 350 and greased up a 13x9 glass bake pan. If you don't have glass its fine, but try to get one,  it is a great heat conductor for this kind of baking. I take each tortillas and fill them with the chicken mixture and cheese, rolling each one up burritos style (but open ends) placing them right next to one another in the pan. I was only able to throw eight in vertically and have to place two sets of two horizontally.  I then added a little salt to the milk mixture and then covered the top of the tortillas with the milk mixture. I finished by adding the remainder of the cheese (about one cup) over the top. Leaving the dish uncovered I placed the dish in the oven and cooked for 25 minutes. Making sure that it toiled and bubbled. See the video below, I am very serious about my bubbling.

The meal ended up being cheesey cheesey goodness with just the right amount of spice, great texture in the corn tortillas, moist chicken, nutty smoky flavor, and a lot of comfort. Try it you'll see. xoxo happy nibbling!










http://www.yelp.com/biz/tortilleria-mexicana-los-hermanos-brooklyn