Chicken and Apricot Enchiladas

They take a bit of time to prepare, but enchiladas give you warmth and comfort on a cool fall day. As always, I use refrigerator and pantry staples and leftover bits of vegetables. Here's a post on enchiladas from a few years ago, and I see that my comments about always using black beans is actually not true. 

Ingredients: 

For last night's enchildas, I used a chicken breast (poached and shredded), goat cheese, leftover cooked spinach and 3 dried apricots for each enchilada. You could of course substitute Mexican cheese or Monterey Jack for the goat cheese and add black, pinto or Great Northern beans in addition to the chicken. Sometimes I also add a tablespoon of chipolte chiles in adobo sauce for smoky heat.

Sauce: 

My sauce consists of a roux with 3 tablespoons of flour and about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of chicken stock along with a canned of chopped green chilies and a few tablespoons of salsa. When I use flour tortillas, as I did last night, I don't bother to warm the tortillas or dip them in the sauce because they are plenty pliable as is.

Assembly: 

Once I have all the ingredients on hand, I create a mini assembly line, placing the fillings on one side of the tortilla. Assembling the enchiladas all at the same time before rolling them up allows me to adjust the fillings so each tortilla contains the same amount. 

Cooking: 

Before rolling up the enchiladas, spoon a few large tablespoons of sauce onto the bottom and sides of the baking dish to help keep the enchiladas from sticking to the pan. Begin rolling from the side containing the filling; When you get to the end of the tortilla, pull the remaining flap of tortilla up to the top of the roll so you can lift it easily and place it flap-side-down in the baking dish. The tortillas bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes -- covered for soft tops and uncovered about 1/2 way through for a more crispy top.

Last night, the enchiladas rested on a bed of chopped kale and spinach salad mix, topped with sour cream (low fat of course!) and guacamole with pomegranate seeds. Roasted sweet potatoes rounded out the meal.