Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde

Hola!

I've recently had the pleasure of having authentic Mexican food prepared by a girlfriend of mine who is from Mexico City. (I was even so lucky on one occasion to have her mom cook as well - but that's another blog).

I'm a good 2000 miles from Mexico, and my friend swears that the majority of restaurants this far out, are not authentic (well at least 99% of them aren't). So as she did their cooking, I made sure to take lots of notes so I could recreate the recipes.

Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde has several steps. I managed to break them down over a couple of days using the pressure cooker. It's just a bit of laziness on my part, as there is no reason why this dish couldn't be prepared all in the same day.

Salsa Verde
Into the crockpot I put tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno peppers. I added a mere 1/2 cup of water (usually you would cover with water) and brought to high pressure for 4 minutes. I used the valve to release the pressure, so that they wouldn’t overcook. Although I had only used 1/2 cup of water, there was a lot of liquid in the pot. Out of curiosity I strained the veggies to measure the liquid and there was now more than 1 cup of liquid. You do want to retain some of the liquid, but this would be wayyyyy to much.

I transferred my strained ingredients to a blender, then added onion, cilantro and lime and blended until a smooth sauce. I put the sauce in the fridge, where it stayed for 3 days.

Chicken
Into the pressure cooker I put chicken, cilantro, onion and garlic.

I added about 1 cup of water, put the lid on and brought it to full pressure. I cooked it for 15 minutes, then let the pressure reduce on its own. When I removed the lid it smelled wonderful - the mix of ingredients had this incredibly fresh, fragrant smell. I strained the ingredients, again reserving the liquid as it was such a lovely stock. I shredded the chicken into a bowl, and discarded the skin, bones and strained ingredients.

Enchiladas
After sautéing corn tortillas in oil, I filled each with the chicken, folded in half and laid them out in a baking dish. I poured my prepared salsa verde over top and spread it around to cover, and put grated mozzarella cheese on top. I baked it for about 30 minutes, and had a yummy, spicy dish.



Salsa Verde
6 medium tomatillos husked
1 clove garlic
3 jalapeno peppers
1 small bunch cilantro
1/2 medium onion
1/2 lime, squeezed for juice
Put the tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno peppers into the pressure cooker. Add 1/2 cup of water and bring to high pressure and cook for 4-6 minutes. Let the pressure drop on its own. Strain the veggies and reserve the liquid. Place the veggies into a blender with the cilantro, onion and lime juice. Blend until smooth.

Chicken
4 chicken breasts with bone and skin on
1 small bunch fresh Cilantro
1/2 medium onion
1 clove garlic
Put the chicken breasts, cilantro, onion and garlic into the pressure cooker. Bring to high pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Let the pressure drop on it's own. Remove the chicken and shred the meat - discard the bones and skin. You can strain the remaining liquid and reserve for using to cook rice.

Enchiladas
8 small corn tortillas
Olive oil
Mozzarella cheese, grated
Sauté each corn tortilla in a bit of olive oil to soften. Fill each with shredded chicken, fold in half, and place in a casserole baking dish. Cover with the salsa verde, then top with shredded mozza. Place under the broiler to melt the cheese.