That’s right. Watch out, these cheesy fiends will enlarge your thighs! Ha, funny. But seriously, check these puppies out!

FYI, this isn’t a totally unhealthy dish, it has tons of spinach in it and light cream cheese. Plus, the color comes from lots o’ yummy veggies: green onion, cilantro, spinach, and chiles.

It’s been a while since the Fajita Fiesta for One so we thought it was time to re-release our inner urges to Americanize Mexican food. We just can’t resist things like California burritos (carne asada, avocado and fries), nacho cheese sauce from a push pump, and apparently green and creamy enchiladas. If American’s love of cream and cheese and Mexico’s love of tortillas and cilantro had a baby, this would be it.

I made this with my mom during the holidays and have been thinking about it ever since. It was clearly love at first bite.

Mean Green Chicken Enchiladas

Sauce

• 1/2 12-ounce package fresh spinach
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 green onions, minced
• 1 4-ounce can diced green chilies, drained
• 1  teaspoons ground cumin
• 1  teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Enchiladas

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 8 6-inch corn tortillas
• 3 cups rotisserie chicken
• 1 1/2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese
• 1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

• sour cream and salsa to top it all off

How to:

Warm cream cheese and milk for 20-30 seconds and blend well. Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add flour and stir mixture for about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in cream cheese and milk mixture. Simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach, cilantro, green onion, chilies, cumin, coriander and red pepper. Use an immersion blender to puree (or put into a food processor). Season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in heavy small skillet over medium-high heat. Dip tortillas in oil to soften, shake it off, and put onto paper towels to drain.

Let’s just pretend the Italian wine in the background is a Corona with a snazzy little lime in it. Thanks.

Combine cheeses in large bowl; set aside 3/4 cups for topping. Combine onion and cilantro in small bowl.

Place 1/4 cup cheese mixture in center of 1 tortilla. Spoon 2 teaspoons onion mixture over. Add a handful of chicken. Roll up tortilla. Place seam side down in large glass baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas, cheese and onion, using 1/4 cup cheese for each.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Sprinkle the top with with a happy trail of reserved 3/4 cup cheese.

Bake until the cheese browns a bit, about 25 minutes.

Enjoy your Mean Green Chicken Enchiladas with LOTS of loved ones, because it can sure feed all of them + some.

From the Little Yellow Kitchen,

Lauren

Posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 9:51 pm in Dinner, Recipes   |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback URL