Mexican Night and Make Your Own Enchiladas

I love a new recipe, don’t you? My sweet friend Laura is always looking out for me and she’s a fantastic cook. She messaged me on Facebook a couple weeks ago with this Enchilada recipe and my oh my…AND she said I could share it with you all!!! She’s the best!

One of my favorite foods is Mexican food. I love going to our local Hacienda and eating chips and salsa until my heart is content. In fact, that’s exactly what we did this weekend on the way home from watching our girl’s basketball team play for a State Championship. This visit we went all out and ordered the guacamole and our hearts and tummy left full. BUT we realized with this Enchilada recipe there is no need to go out to have Mexican night. You can stay in the comfort of your own home with these Enchiladas but you will feel like you are dining at your favorite Mexican restaurant AND you can have chips, salsa, and my kids favorite…ranch!!! My stomach is starting to growl just thinking about it. And to be honest, my husband and I have really started to enjoy working together in the kitchen on the weekends…it’s just fun and makes the job of cooking for 5…sometimes 6, a team effort. So let’s get this party started.

First you will need to gather your ingredients. Because I’m raising a big family I tend to buy whatever brand is on sale or a lot of times I get as many ingredients as possible from our local Aldi, which saves us a crazy amount of money and my family doesn’t know the difference in brands…but of course you use whatever suits your fancy.

You will need:

*10 large flour tortillas or I used the Aldi brand which has 10 and it worked out fine

*1 small can enchilada sauce

*1 can of tomato soup

*8 oz tomato sauce

*1/2 chopped green pepper

*1/2 C sliced green onions

*1 t chili powder

*1 t cumin

*3 T brown sugar

*3 C cooked and shredded chicken

*3 oz cream cheese

*2 C sharp cheddar cheese

*16 oz refried beans, optional

Preheat your oven to 350.

First you will want to get your chicken cooking on the stove.  I place 2 or 3 chicken breasts in water and bring it to boil and forget about it for about 30 min. You could also add a few bouillon cubes if you wanted to get super fancy.

While your chicken is cooking you will want to add the first 8 ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil for 15 minutes.

When your chicken is done and slightly cooled, shred.

Combine your shredded chicken, 3 oz cream cheese, 2 C sharp cheddar, and 1/3 C red sauce in a separate bowl.

Now, it’s time to assemble your enchiladas. My husband and I had an assembly line going. I took a tortilla and spread a tablespoon of refried beans but if beans aren’t your thing then you may skip this step. Place about ¼ C chicken filling in each tortilla. I probably did a little less to try and make this dish go a little further. Wrap them up like a burrito and place seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan. Once all your enchiladas are done pour the remainder of red sauce over the enchiladas. At this point we were doing a little happy dance in the kitchen because it looked and smelled AMAzing.

Sprinkle your sharp cheddar cheese over the entire enchilada goodness and place in the oven. You will want to bake these for about 20 minutes uncovered or until the cheese is slightly browned. Serve with sour cream and guacamole. You could also serve Mexican rice and chips, salsa, and ranch. Speaking of ranch…my kids like ranch on EVERYTHING and I found this recipe some time ago and when I make it, my kids love me so much;) It's the recipe I use and I don’t think you will regret making it AND it’s super easy! Enjoy!!