Chicken Enchiladas

When our younger son and his family came to visit in January, we knew we’d try a new recipe out with them. They are foodies and love to try new things—plus since they’re a family of five, we knew we could make the recipe and have only a few leftovers. As it turned out, we didn’t which was fine by us.

You make the dish in two stages—the first stage is in the slow cooker and can be done well ahead of time. Then you assemble the enchiladas and briefly bake them. Using the slow cooker for the chicken and sauce means you can shred the chicken in the sauce. That makes assembling things easier, and it’s easier to eat, too.

Slow cooker ingredients:

• 2 T unsweetened cocoa
• 2 adobo chilies in chipotle sauce, diced
• 1 batch enchilada sauce
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Slow cooker directions:

Bear paws shred like a champ

1. Mix the cocoa, chilies and enchilada sauce together. 
2. Place the chicken thighs in the slow cooker and top with the wet mixture.
3. Cook on high for four hour or on low for eight hours.
4. Shred the meat while it’s still in the sauce (Kent likes his bear paws for shredding).
5. Divide in half; after the mixture cools, put half into a freezer bag and freeze for future use. Continue on with the recipe for the reserved mixture.

For the rest of the dish:

• About 2 cups shredded cheddar/Monterey Jack cheese
• 12 to 14 small corn tortillas

Assembling the dish:

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.
2. Grease a baking dish or use cooking spray.
3. Put about half the meat mixture in the baking dish.
4. Place tortillas flat on the meat mixture, and top with about half the cheese.
5. Repeat to create a second layer.
6. Bake until bubbly, 20 to 30 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

Falafel Tacos

Once again, this winner of a recipe was first pinned by the same friend who made the baked oatmeal and the Mexican Stew. She's got good taste, what can I say? We had this for Valentine’s Day dinner this year. They are incredibly good and full of flavor, and I can't wait to have them again.

Ingredients

Falafel:

• ½ C pine nuts
• ½ C cilantro (for us, it’s about half a bunch as it comes from the store)
• ¼ C chives
• 1 16-ounce can chickpeas (drain well and reserve the liquid in case you need it when forming the falafels); or make your own, and use 2 cups
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ C onion, diced
• ½ t cumin
• ½ t cayenne (optional but you’ll be sorry if you don’t add it)
• ½ t salt
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 T flour
• 2 T olive oil (plus a little more for brushing on top—we use our Misto for that step)

Amazing harissa

Green harissa:

• 2 T cumin seeds
• 1 T coriander seeds
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
• ½ C cilantro (there’s the rest of the bunch)
• 3 T dried parsley 
• Zest from half a lemon
• Juice from a whole lemon
• ½ t salt
• Pinch red pepper flakes

Yummy toppings

Tacos:

• Corn tortillas
• Avocado, sliced
• Diced tomatoes (we use cherry tomatoes, they taste better especially in winter)

Directions:

Falafal:

1. Using a food processor, pulse the pine nuts and the chickpeas until the nuts are evenly ground. Add the rest of the falafel ingredients and pulse until the mixture is smooth but with some chunkiness to it. 
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. With your hands, roll about a teaspoon of the mixture into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Continue until all the mixture is formed into little balls and refrigerate for two hours. If you don’t, your falafel may not be as firm after baking as you’d like. 

Harissa:

1. Preheat the oven to 400⁰ (this is for the falafel). 
2. In a small skillet, lightly toast the cumin and coriander seeds over low heat for a couple of minutes until they are fragrant. Remove them from the heat and allow them to cool. 
3. Place the toasted cumin and coriander along with the rest of the harissa ingredients except for the olive oil into a food processor. While the food processor is running, slowly add in the olive oil until the harissa is thick but not too thick. 

Putting it all together:

1. Remove the falafel from the refrigerator, and brush the tops with olive oil. We use our Misto for this step. 
2. Bake the falafel for about 30 minutes until they are brown and crispy. 
3. If you want to, warm the tortillas. 
4. Spread some harissa on the tortilla, top with avocado, tomatoes and a falafel patty or two. 
5. Enjoy!

Falafel cookies!

In the interest of sparing anyone shock at what the falafels look like after baking, here's a photo of our falafel cookies, as we called them. We think it's because we didn't drain the chickpeas well enough.

Enchilada Sauce

There’s a reason for this recipe and it has to do with Kent’s pride. You see, our younger son and his family were coming to see us and we’d already decided to try a new recipe while they were here. They’re foodies as much as we are and we knew if the recipe turned out as tasty as we hoped, they’d love it. And if we all hated it, Papa John’s was just a phone call away.

But the recipe called for canned, store-bought enchilada sauce, and Kent just couldn’t do that, he couldn’t resort to using a premade version of something we could make ourselves. He did some online scouting, some revising and here’s the results. By the way, the main recipe was a hit also.

Ingredients:

• ¼ C vegetable oil
• ¼ C all-purpose flour
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes (we use fire roasted; we think it makes a big difference)
• 2 T plus 2 t chili powder
• 1 ½ t dried oregano
• 1 t cumin
• 4 cloves garlic
• About ¼ small onion
• 1 T brown sugar, packed
• 1 C water
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Using a food processor, puree the tomatoes, all the spices, the garlic, onion and brown sugar.
2. Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Whisk in flour until well combined, about 1 minute.
3. Stir in the mixture from the food processor and add the water.
4. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. 
5. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy!