Chicken or Seafood Enchiladas

1/22/10 & 1/30/10

Ok in the Cooking With Paula Deen Jan/Feb 2010 magazine there is a recipe for chicken enchiladas that looked simple and tasty. I took 2 shortcuts that I do believe effected the flavor in the wrong direction, her recipe was really meant as a meal for leftovers. On day 1 she has a recipe for Southwest Roast Chicken which calls for seasoning the chicken under the skin and she's adding salsa to the box of Spanish rice. So I think I'm going to try to make Day 1 meal before trying this again and seeing if that helps the flavor. But it's off to a great start, I have to say. Even the kids liked it. But I also have to admit, it's really not good for you at all! LOL

Chicken or Seafood Enchiladas

1 Southwest Roast Chicken OR 1 16oz pkg of bay scallops + 1 14oz pkg small cooked shrimp, peeled & deveined with tail off
1 recipe Reserved Spanish Rice OR 2 pkgs Uncle Ben's Ready Rice Spanish Style
1 (10.75oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (8oz) package shredded Mexican style cheese taco flavored, divided
1 (80z) package shredded 4 cheese Mexican blend, divided
4T. Pace Tequila Lime Salsa
1 (14oz) pkg burrito-sized tortillas
1 (10oz) can/jar mild enchilada sauce
Garnish: chopped fresh cilantro

Ok I cooked and shredded chicken and used 2 cups of shredded chicken...I should have cooked and shredded 4 chicken breasts, it needed more chicken. On the seafood, I cooked them in the microwave and this amount was perfect.

Uncle Ben's rice was perfect.

I didn't like Ortega's enchilada sauce but in this recipe you don't pick out the specific flavor, so whatever enchilada sauce you get is fine. On the second go around I used Old El Paso enchilada sauce, medium and that was perfect!

I also didn't bother with the garnish, but I love cilantro so I'll do that next time.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9" baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Remove and discard skin and bones from chicken and coarsely chop it (I shredded it with 2 forks)

In a large bowl, combine chopped chicken, reserved Spanish Rice, soup, sour cream, cream cheese, 1 1/2 cups each of the 2 cheeses and 4T Tequila Lime Salsa. When doing the seafood enchiladas fold in the seafood last after everything else is blended.

Next time I intend on adding 1t cumin to the sour cream before adding it to the mixture and possibly drained green chilies. I didn't try the cumin this time since other things were new to the recipe.

Spoon mixture down center of burrito and roll it up, place it in the baking dish seam side down. When the dish is filled I spooned remaining mixture on top, then the enchilada sauce, then the rest of the shredded cheese, and I will sprinkle fresh cilantro on next time.

Actually next time I'm making a seafood version. I'd love to try this with small scallops, shrimp and lobster meat. For sure.

Regardless, even as I made it, it was delicious. And Steve Jr liked it, he's the picky one in this house.