It was an amazing moment in my life. Kinda, haha! Anyhooo...I decided to try the recipe for white chicken enchiladas in her new book (which, yes, is autographed by the way). She doesn't have this exact recipe on her website, but she does have a very similar one (click here for the printable) and since I didn't follow her recipe exactly anyway, I don't suppose it really matters all that much.
Starting out, though, I boiled some chicken tenderloins while I was chopping up some peppers. The PW wants you to roast the peppers...I wasn't into all that, so I skipped that part. Hey, by the way, those jalapenos are from our garden...just thought I'd toot that little horn.
Next up, you throw half of those peppers, along with a diced onion, into a hot skillet with some oil and cook until the onion is translucent. Now, if you roast the peppers, unlike me, you'd just cook the onion at this point.
I grilled the other half of the peppers in a separate pan (that you'll need here in a little bit anyway).
After the onions are translucent, you'll throw the shredded chicken (that you were boiling earlier) and 1 cup of chicken broth in the mix.
And then, what you're supposed to do is pour in 1 cup of heavy cream. Now, I always try to lighten up the PW's recipes, but I also am the queen of using what I have on hand...and that was half and half. So, I poured THAT into the pan. If I'd only had milk, that would have gone in instead.
After that, you'll want to throw in a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of paprika. And if you've roasted the peppers, like you were supposed to, then you'll throw them in at this time.
Take the other skillet (you know, the one I grilled my other peppers on and that you've since removed?) and melt some butter. If you're a purist, that'd be four tablespoons. Then sprinkle in 1/4 cup of flour and whisk it around a bit until it's nice and combined.
Then pour in another two cups of chicken broth and mix until it's smooth. While that's cooking, shred some Monterey Jack cheese, around 1 1/2 cups worth of it.
And add it into the mixture with another 1/2 teaspoon of paprika.
After that's all mixed, throw in the peppers you grilled (or roasted) earlier with 8 oz. of sour cream. At this point, I was a little shocked at the cream, cheese and sour cream content...but, sometimes you just have to go for it, right? Stir all of that up!
At this point, you actually start making the enchiladas. Fill the tortillas with the chicken mixture, then place seam side down in a pan.
And here's my entire pan full of delicious enchiladas.
I still had a ton of leftover sauce in the chicken mixture pan, so I just poured it over the top.
Then, you want to pour the creamy mixture over the already exorbitantly caloric enchiladas...this'll just make that caloric content number skyrocket.
Yea...that's right. At this point the PW wants you to put another cup of cheese on top. I did not do that...these are decadent enough already!
Throw those bad boys into the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until they're bubbling.
While I was waiting on those enchilalas to turn brown and bubbly, I made something with these beauties from my back yard. Can you guess?
Salsa! First I lopped off their tops...
Then, I quartered them and threw them in my food processor. Then, I grabbed this cute baby onion. Our OKC church is funding a community garden and I grabbed a couple of these the last time I was in town. I chopped this little guy in half and threw him in the food processor as well.
Along with some fresh cilantro, garlic and salt. Oh yea, and a smidge of red cayenne pepper.
Mix that on up...beautiful and delicious!
Around this time, the enchiladas will be ready. I threw (like the PW requests) some fresh cilantro on top. I did, also, wait a few minutes for the mixture to thicken a little on standing, so the sauce doesn't just puddle in the pan.
These, along with fresh salsa and tortilla chips, was our supper. And it was great! I will say, though, that every time I make enchiladas...I swear it's worth just going to a Mexican restaurant and paying $10-15. It's more work than I normally like, but it usually turns our pretty darn good! It'll probably be a while before I make these or another one of my enchilada recipes...I gotta forget how much effort I have to put forth...but, I'm sure I'll be making this again. It was great!
Again, if you'd like to see the Pioneer Woman's pictures, instructions and printable recipe, just click here! But, don't feel you have to follow the recipe verbatim. This isn't one of those recipes where, if you skip one step, it will completely mess you up. As you can see, I didn't follow it 100% and they turned out fantastic!
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