Jessica Alba’s Chicken Enchiladas

Not only is Jessica Alba hot, she also makes a mean enchilada – or her chef does.  Her recipe was featured in SELF magazine back in July of 2005. Did I save her recipe from way back then? No – I used the epicurious app on the iPad and searched Chicken Enchiladas and it popped up.

Dan wanted red sauce, corn tortillas and chicken or ground beef enchiladas. Not a problem… Jessica Alba to the rescue.

The Ingredients:

4 cups chicken stock  – I used the entire carton, a little more than 4 cups.
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 5 oz each), cut into strips – I shredded mine
1 jalapeño pepper
1 clove garlic  – I used two cloves
1 jar (12 oz) salsa  – I used a mixture of fresh from the deli and a smoked jar salsa
1 cup shredded lowfat cheddar  – I used full fat medium Tillamook cheddar
1/2 cup shredded lowfat Monterey Jack  – I used full fat Tillamook Monterey Jack – 3/4 small brick
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro – 3/4 small brick
1 can (2.25 oz) sliced black olives, drained  – I used two cans of chopped
1 can (16 oz) traditional enchilada sauce  – had to get the bigger cans, had a lot left over
1 can (16 oz) green chile enchilada sauce
Mexican hot sauce  – I used Cholula
Cayenne pepper
Vegetable-oil cooking spray – I used olive oil spray
8 corn tortillas (6 inches across) – I used the entire package and made two trays

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium pot, boil stock, chicken (I cut the breasts in half), jalapeño and garlic 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Strain chicken, run cold water over it and shred into a bowl. I used two forks because I was in a crunch and couldn’t wait for them to cool down all the way.

Mix in your salsa…

and set aside…

In a separate bowl, combine cheddar, Monterey Jack, cilantro and olives; set aside.

In a pot over medium heat, combine enchilada sauces and add Mexican hot sauce and cayenne to taste. Stir until simmering. Set aside.

It was at this point that guests started showing up and I totally forget that I was documenting this process for the blog.

I coated two glass baking  pans with nonstick olive oil spray. One was a 9×11 and one was 11×13. I warmed the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds. I spooned a huge mound of cheese mixture and chicken into the center of each tortilla, rolled them up and then placed  them into the pan, seam side down. I topped with the remaining cheese mixture. I then poured the sauce over the top and and topped again with more cheese. The larger dish was full and the second dish only had 4 enchiladas in it. They both baked in the oven for about 30 minutes until the cheese was bubbling and the edges of the tortillas were browned.

I wish I had a photo of them sitting in their glass pans like little soldiers lined up…because that is when they looked pretty. The tortillas were so soft that they almost baked together lasagna style. I kept apologizing over and over to my guests for the way they looked – but nobody seemed to care. They tasted screamin’ good!

I served 1 enchilada per person and it was plenty. I ate the leftovers for lunch the next day – so I photographed that for you to see.

1/2 of my monster Alba enchilada 😉 – the recipe actually says to use a small amount of filling, no way… where’s the fun in that? There is also no way 1/4 cup of low fat cheese would cut it. I’m glad I substituted on both accounts.

The dinner was a huge success. The enchiladas had the perfect amount of heat to them and I will definitely be making them – “Foodiddy style” again.