Shakespeare and Enchiladas

On this unworthy cooking blog, I show

A recipe, oft claim’d by country south,

but craft by my hand and no learned skill.

Let me, cipher to this great accompt,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose that when I speak of enchiladas,

You imagine those cheesy tortillas

Stuff’d with meat, covered in spicy salsa

Found only in American, Mex’can joints.

Can anyone guess from which Shakespeare play I adapted this opening speech?

Sometimes I like to find ways to justify my graduate work in Theatre. What can I say? The point of the speech is that this is not an authentic enchilada recipe. This is a ‘it’s-the-middle-of-the-week-and-I-need-to-not-eat-fast-food’ kind of recipe.

Because we all have different tastes and different ingredients in our pantries, I thought I would pose this recipe as a formula:

ENCHILADA FORMULA

Meat + Cheese +Sauce/Salsa + Tortilla = a piping hot Mexican casserole we like to call ‘enchiladas’

I used leftover chicken from my Roasted Chicken a la Mexicana and my salsa verde to make Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas. Everyone has different tastes so pick a combination that works for you.

SUGGESTED COMBINATIONS

• Shredded chicken + Salsa Verde + Monterrey Jack cheese
• Shredded beef + Tomato Salsa + Cheddar cheese
• Ground chicken + Enchilada Sauce + Cheddar Cheese
• Ground Beef + Tomato Salsa + Monterrey Jack Cheese
• Replace meat with ¾ cup black beans and ¾ cup corn.

BASIC ENCHILADA RECIPE

3 cups of meat (ground or shredded chicken or beef)

1 ½ cups of salsa or sauce

8 flour tortillas

½ cup cheese

Cooking spray

9 x 13 pan (not glass)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to Broil.
2. Coat your baking dish with cooking spray.
3. Mix meat, ½ cup salsa/sauce and ½ cup of cheese in a bowl. If meat is not already hot, microwave for 2 minutes.
   NOTE: This means that you can make the meat ahead of time or use a rotisserie chicken you bought from the store. If you just made the meat, you would just stir together the meat with the salsa/sauce and cheese.
4. Spoon 1/3 cup of the meat mixture into the middle of the tortilla and roll up. Place the tortilla seam side down in the pan. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
5. Spoon remaining salsa over the tortillas.
6. Top with remaining cheese.
7. Broil for approximately 8 minutes, until all of the cheese is melted.
8. Remove from oven and enjoy!

SUGGESTED ADD-INS

• Add ½ cup of black or pinto beans to the meat.
• Top with diced tomatoes.
• Top with sliced green onions.
• Top with sliced jalapeno peppers.
• Add ½ cup diced onions with meat.
• Add ½ cup diced mushrooms with meat.
• Add ¼ cup corn and ¼ cup black beans with meat.
• Add ¼ cup diced jalapeno peppers to meat.
• Add diced avocado after casserole comes out of oven.

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