Chicken Enchiladas with Options
Prep time 45 minutes
Bake time 30 minutes
Serves 4-6 portions
Ingredients
1 lb, boneless , skinless chicken breast tenders
1 Ten pack soft tortillas (Flour, corn , wheat, multi grain, you decide)
1 Eight oz. bag Mexican shredded cheese mix
1 can chicken tortilla soup
1 small yellow or white onion, peeled and diced
1 green pepper, washed, seeded and diced
1 Fourteen oz jar of picante sauce (You select spice level, mild, medium or hot)
Preparation
CHILD: Remove chicken from package and rinse in cold water and dry on a couple paper towels. Wash your hands with soap and water.
PARENT: With clean scissors, cut the tender or plastic straw looking cartilage off of each chicken tender. You do not have to be precise, just get as much off as you can.
CHILD: Place chicken on a plate and sprinkle with garlic salt & black pepper. (sprinkle chili powder if you like spice) Wash your hands with soap and water.
CHILD Over your sink, spray a 9X12x2 casserole dish with non-stick spray to make clean up easier.
PARENT: Open can of soup into a 2 QT mixing bowl
CHILD: Add 3/4 can of water to the can of soup in the mixing bowl and stir/ whisk to mix thoroughly.
PARENT: Pour the soup into the sprayed casserole dish.
PARENT & CHILD TAKE TURNS: On a separate cutting board or flat surface, take a tortilla flat and place 2 chicken tenders and a half hand full of cheese in the middle and roll the tortilla up.
PARENT & CHILD TAKE TURNS: Place rolled enchilada into the casserole dish, kind of sinking them in the soup mixture and repeat until all enchiladas are in your casserole dish.(It is ok if you squeeze the rolled enchiladas closely together. It is also ok if cheese falls out or they are not rolled tightly like cigarettes. It will always taste great!) Wash your hands with soap and water.
PARENT OR CHILD OVER AGE 12: Dice your vegetables. Grocery stores and specialty gourmet food equipment stores sell a mesh glove that is a cut protector glove. Consider buying one in your size and that of your child/ren.
( To dice onions, you place the onion on a flat surface cutting board so that the stem side is up. Cut the onion in half, so you have divided the stem side into two pieces. With your thumb, push the onion skin away from the shiny surface of the onion. Sometimes you will take the first row of shiny skin off too. Do not worry, it happens. Then place the flat surface of your onion half on the cutting board. You will look at the shiny skin and see lines. Run your knife down every other line to make a series of cuts down to the cutting board. About 6 or 8 slices per half of onion. Keep the onion together and place your hand on top of the crown of the onion behind your knife blade to prevent cutting yourself. Turn the sliced onion half 180*, so the cut stripes are now horizontal to your knife hand and proceed to cut 6 to 8 slices perpendicular to your previous cuts. This gives you a medium dice. As you have more practice with knives and onions, you can make the dice smaller by cutting more lines in the shiny surface, say 12 to 14 and the same number on the perpendicular cuts, always keeping you hand behind the cutting edge and allowing the blade to pull the onion away from your hand.)
( To dice a pepper, cut the stem off. Place the cut side down on your cutting board and cut the pepper in half. Pull out the seeds and any internal loose flesh. With the shiny side down, cut thin strips vertically down the inside of the pepper. This is called making "Julienne" strips. Then cut each julienne strip into 6 to each pieces. This is the safe way to cut peppers into smaller pieces.
The result should be that your onion and peppers pieces should be closely the same size so they cook at the same length of time. Do not worry if the sizes vary, they will still cook and be terrific! )
PARENT OR CHILD: Turn on your oven and pre-heat your oven to 350*F
CHILD: Sprinkle the diced green peppers and onions over the casserole. The goal is to try to evenly spread out the vegetables, so each serving of enchilada will include an equal amount of enchilada, soup sauce and vegetables. Wash your hands with soap and water.
PARENT: Open your jar of picante sauce and pour in evenly over the enchiladas, again trying to have an equal amount over the entire surface of the casserole. You can use a spoon or spatula to spread the sauce around. (Picante jar difficult to open? With lid secure, turn upside down and hold tightly with one hand and with the palm of your other hand, spank or pop hard and fast on the bottom of the jar. This moves the air up to the top against the jar lid seal and usually loosens the seal. Turn jar up and unscrew. Repeat if lid didn't come loose.)
CHILD: Open the bag of cheese and also sprinkle/spread it evenly over the surface of your casserole.
PARENT: Wash the cutting board with warm soapy water, rinse and place in dish washer. OR wash by hand in HOT soapy water, all items that made contact with chicken, including kitchen counter areas.
PARENT or CHILD OVER AGE 12: Place a cookie tray in the oven on the middle rack if possible.
PARENT: Place your casserole dish on top of the cookie sheet to catch possible bubble over.
CHILD: Set timer and Bake for 30 minutes.
PARENT: Remove from the oven and allow to sit and rest 5 minutes before serving. The goal to serving is to scoop out 2 or 3 enchiladas per portion. It will be a nice cheesy gooey mess, so please do not worry if your enchiladas break when served.
*** This meal works well with another one of your "tossed" salads you made last week, only this time you can use up the Ranch dressing of use 2 ounces of the low calorie Italian dressing you have left over. An appropriate beverage to serve with this or any meal would be 100% fruit juice with a low sugar content, plain green tea, hot or cold over ice, low fat milk or ice water with a squeeze or slice of fresh lemon or lime in it. Try not to drink your calories!
OPTIONS!!
1. You can set the timer for 20 minutes and then after 20 minutes top your casserole with any or all of the following.... crushed tortilla chips, fritos, thin slices of tomato, drained chopped black olives, avocado slices, or jalapeno slices. Again, this depends on your tastes and whether you want to add healthy vegetables or less healthy crunch. Replace the casserole into the oven and bake the remaining 10 minutes.
2. You can substitute the fresh or thawed chicken tenders, with previously fried breaded chicken fingers that you buy frozen. Thaw in the refrigerator over night or for 8 hours. ( Less healthy, plus your children don't get to learn how to remove the tendon from the chicken fillet tender.)
3. You can substitute using cooked ground turkey or ground chicken, ground meat soy substitute, (healthy), chorizo or beef (less healthy). Cook any ground meat you select in a 12 inch saute pan over medium high heat and stir the ground meat with a plastic or wooden spoon until there is no pink color or to the temperature of 160*F. Then drain cooked ground meat in a spaghetti colander strainer and use drained cooked ground meat in your recipe in place of the chicken tenders.
4. You can substitute the Mexican soup for canned red chili sauce, or green chili sauce.
5. You can substitute the Mexican soup for canned cream of mushroom or broccoli cheese soup. To the soup in your casserole dish, add a small bag (8 oz.) of frozen chopped broccoli, that you thaw and drain. Thaw in a microwave covered on the defrost cycle for 2 minutes. Check temperature, then repeat if necessary. Drain out the water. Use 2% milk or any white milk, instead of water with the soup and omit the picante sauce. Substitute the Mexican cheese for shredded sharp cheddar cheese. With 10 minutes left on baking, top your casserole with a can of French's canned crisp onion rings.
Leftovers can be microwaved, covered for 3 minutes on high or baked covered in the oven 350*F for 15 minutes.
WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED
1. A little more about Mexico
2. How to make another memory
3. How to make a casserole"process" that can actually become multiple meals based upon the options your family selects.
4. That you wash your hands thoroughly and often when handling chicken to reduce the chance of bacteria transfer or cross contamination.
5. That you are responsible to clean and sanitize all equipment and areas that chicken touchs, to reduce cross contamination.
6. A technique for julienne slicing and for dicing.
7. That gloves are available to protect against cuts.
8. How to open a difficult jar.
9. How to cook and what color and temperature you should cook ground meat
10. How to thaw a frozen vegetable product you intend to add to a recipe that will bake that thawed vegetable product.
I hope you have a super time together, filled with joy, learning and laughter. Education doesn't stop in school. With you, your children will do homework, create projects, read books, research things on the Internet and cook. You will see their confidence grow! Cooking together builds and reinforces that self confidence for both you and your children.
Seize the day! Make the time together with your children the best positive experience that you can. Stop by next week for some more ideas............
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