Easy and Spicy Enchiladas (courtesty of Christa)

When Forest was born, we were very fortunate to have several friends volunteer to make us meals. One such friend was fellow new-mom, Christa, whom I met in my pre-natal class. 

My NCT class. Forest was the youngest but all babies were born Sept-Oct.

She offered to whip us up some enchiladas and asked if we liked things spicy or not. Being as though Jonathan and I are from Texas by way of Louisiana and Christa is from Indiana, we sort of chuckled at her question. Certainly a mid-western girl couldn’t make us sweat in terms of spicy Tex-Mex. ‘Sure’ I replied, ‘bring on the spice’. 

Imagine our surprise when we took our first bite of her dish and instantly reached for a jug of water. It was just about as spicy as a meal can be and still be enjoyable. We were super impressed and I begged Christa to share her recipe. Since she didn’t have an official recipe she invited Forest and I over for a ‘play-date’ (oh how I miss playdates when my baby slept the whole time!) and showed me how to make a batch. 

Unfortunately, the secret ingredient, chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, was hard to come by in the UK and we were cooking with illegal contraband from her recent trip to the States. Still, I made a mental note of how to prepare these yummy enchiladas but due to newborn-baby-brain completely forgot it 3 seconds afterward. Luckily Christa and I keep in touch via email and she reminded me of the ingredients and steps for how to recreate her masterpiece. Last week I surprised Jonathan by making a batch. 

I still don’t have a recipe but here’s some estimations on what you’ll need: 

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breasts

1 can Chipolte Peppers in Adobe Sauce

2 packages Cream Cheese (I used cream cheese with jalapenos for an extra kick)

About 10-12 large tortillas.

***Just a tip: This dish freezes well so while you're at it, you might as well double the recipe and freeze half for later.*** 

Now, I don't have a formal recipe to work off of and I'm pretty famous for just wingin' it when it comes to cooking, but here's my best stab at directions: 

Directions:

1)Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2) Boil chicken until cooked. Twenty minutes oughtta do it. 

3) Soften cream cheese. 

4) Cut up chipolte peppers in adobe sauce super finely with a round in your food processor (or blender if it's all you've got). 

5) Mix desired amount of peppers in with the cream cheese and add about 1 TBS of water to make it a creamier consistency. 

6) Shred the chicken and then mix with cream cheese/pepper sauce, setting aside about 1/2 cup of of the sauce to spread a thin layer over the top of the enchiladas. 

7) Spread about 2 TBS of the chicken/cream cheese mix into the center of a tortilla and then roll into enchilada and place it horizontally into a 13X9 baking dish. 

8) Repeat step 7 until baking dish is full (about 10-12 enchiladas depending on how skinny you roll them. 

9) Okay, this is really a guestimation but I'd say bake for about 20 minutes or until the ends look a bit crispy. Then take them out of the oven, spread the sauce over the top and bake for an addition 10 minutes or until they look to be about your desired level of crispiness.  

10) Enjoy and make sure you've got a big jug of water nearby. 

P.S. These enchiladas are so yummy that I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product before digging in. I'm sure you can use your imagination! Just trust me- they were beautiful and scrumptious and I'm already wondering how soon we can have them for dinner again. 

Thanks for the 'recipe' Christa! I still can't believe you managed to make me a home cooked meal with a 6 week old at home. When Forest was 6 weeks old I was still in full out zombie mode!