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One delish enchilada with a side of sautéed spinach, topped with guacamole, fresh salsa, cilantro, tomatoes, Bariani olive oil, Cojita cheese and alongside butter panfried shishito peppers topped with some of my fresh lacto-fermented aioli.

This is no fly by night recipe. I make a lot of quick dishes, but this just isn’t one of them.

It’s well worth the toil and sweat, but if you want to see this through from beginning to end in one shot, be prepared to spend an afternoon tinkering in the kitchen.

Before you nix it and head to the next recipe! Let me offer you some ways to simplify this dish.

The shredded chicken in the salsa verde is on its own an excellent meat dish. It can be served with greens and/ or grains, and guacamole of course. If nothing else, make the salsa verde and combine it with the shredded chicken. I promise that this alone will not disappoint! If you want the taco experience, just wrap it in a plain toasted corn tortilla. This will reduce the time investment by half.

What requires the most hands on time is preparing and filling each corn tortilla. I highly recommend preparing the whole enchilada dish for a special occasion – or just because you love the meditative process of cooking an involved dish. It’s really a treat unlike anything served in most restaurants.

For a vegetarian version, use 2 lbs of sautéed Oyster mushrooms in place of chicken.

Cooking Tips + Options

There are two components that you could tackle a day in advance:

boiling of the whole chicken
roasting the veggies for the verde sauce

If you have the time to do either of these tasks the day before you won’t have to wait for them to cool, which will greatly streamline your process.

Chicken

After boiling the chicken you’ll reserve 3 cups of the cooking liquid for this recipe. Use the remaining liquid to make bone broth, or to use in another recipe that could benefit from the slight umami, such as a pot of grains.
Once the chicken has cooled, you’ll be shredding the chicken by hand. This is fairly easy but time consuming. Goes much faster if you have a couple pairs of hands going at it! Go one leg, wing and breast at a time, simply pulling away the meat in shreds. Use the bones and skin for the afore mentioned bone broth. You may not have the wherewithal to take on broth while making this recipe, so freeze the remains for a later date.
If you’ed prefer an easier undertaking, simply use 4 breasts instead of a whole chicken. This will be a little more expensive and a bit less nutritious, but sometimes compromises have to be made. To boil only breasts, reduce cooking time to 15 minutes.
Don’t worry if any part of your shredded chicken looks bloody. The meat closest to the bone likely will. The shreds will be cooked thoroughly after combined with the salsa.
You may have leftover chicken. I used a whole chicken and after filling 12 fat tortillas I had enough chicken left for another dinner, of two!

Salsa Verde

After roasting the tomatillos, let the ingredients cool completely before placing them into your food processor. No plastic is safe plastic. BPA 1, 2, infinitum. If you put hot foods into plastic the chemicals are more likely to transfer to your food.
You’ll be glad if your food processor is a 10+ cup. Mine is a 7 cup processor and though I made it work, that was too much tomatillo for that bowl.

Process Photos

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Two enchiladas for my hubby, with sautéed spinach topped with guacamole and a side of butter-fried shishito peppers and aioli of course.

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Jalapeño and Poblano chiles deseeded.

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Tomatillos, poblanos, onions and garlic before & after. Look for that golden brown tomatillo skin to achieve roasting perfection.

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To ease the tortilla filling process: chicken to one side, a flat pan to dip the corn tortillas in salsa verde to another and one burner open for tortilla roasting. Don’t overfill the tortillas so that they can be sealed.

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Rolled and sealed tortillas topped with the remaining salsa and extra cheese ready for the oven.

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Baked enchiladas with slightly browned cheese, ready to plate, garnish and serve!

Roasted Tomatillo Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Created by Patryce Kinga Bak on May 3, 2016

Making enchiladas from scratch requires time and commitment, but the reward is absolutely divine. If you’re short on time, simplify this recipe by simply making the salsa and combining with the shredded chicken. Then tossing the mixture into a plain corn tortilla.

Prep Time: 1h
Cook Time: 2h
Total Time: 3h

Serves: 6
Yield: 12 Enchiladas

Ingredients

Salsa Verde

1 1/2 pounds Tomatillos, husked + washed
6 cloves Garlic, crushed (for roasting)
4 cloves Garlic, minced (for sautéing, step 2)
2 large Onions, chopped (for sautéing, step 2)
2 large Onions, roughly chopped (for roasting)
1 Jalepeno Chile, deseeded + chopped
2 Poblano chiles, deseeded + chopped
1/4 cup Avocado Oil for roasting (sub olive oil if needed)
1/2 cup EV Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Himalayan Sea Salt
2 teaspoons Cumin, ground
2 teaspoons Oregano
1 cup Cilantro (roughly one small bunch)
1 small Lime, juiced (about 1 Tbsp)

Enchiladas

1 whole Pasture Raised Chicken (makes enough for 6 people)
1 gallon Filtered Water
2 cups Chicken Broth (reserved from cooking water)
1/4 cup Arrowroot (skip if not available)
2 teaspoons Oregano
2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
4 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 bunch Cilantro
1 teaspoon Himalayan Salt
1 teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1/2 pound Monterey Jack or Colby cheese
1/2 pound Cotija Cheese
12 Organic Corn Tortillas

Instructions

Chicken

Place the whole chicken in a large pot of filtered water. Bring to a boil. Simmer on high heat for 25 minutes.
Using tongs, carefully remove the chicken. Place on a plate or pan. Let cool on the counter or in the fridge.
Let the remaining liquid cool. Reserve 3 cups for this recipe. Pour the rest into glass containers for storage.
Shred chicken by hand. One leg, wing and breast at a time, simply pulling away the meat in shreds. Be sure to get the meat close to the bone.

Salsa Verde: Part I

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Roughly chop chiles and onions after deseeding and washing chiles (best to use gloves for the jalapeno, or you might really regret it!).
Crush the garlic with your knife, remove skins and chop off ends.
Wash tomatillos after plucking off the husks. Use vinegar and a veggie brush to remove the sticky film.
Place chiles, whole tomatillos, onions and garlic into a roasting pan. Toss and coat well with avocado oil and salt.
Roast 35-45 minutes, depending on your oven. My oven required a roasting time of 45 minutes to achieve lightly browned tomatillos skins.
Let the ingredients cool completely before placing them into the food processor.
Once cooled, place the roasted veggies together with lime juice and washed cilantro into a food processor. For the cilantro just chop off the bottom stems and toss in the rest.
Process until you have an even, but chunky mixture.

Salsa Verde: Part II

In a 3+QT pot, sauté remaining 2 large chopped onions, cumin, fresh ground black pepper and salt in olive oil for about 5 minutes on medium-low heat, until translucent.
Keep covered, stirring occasionally. Add the minced garlic and oregano and sauté for another minute or so.
Pour in the 2 cups of cooking water from your chicken, or bone broth. Scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan and stir.
Now slowly sift in the arrowroot powder, while continuing to stir in one direction. Blend well and break up any chunks of arrowroot. Add a little more broth liquid if it gets too thick.
Pour in the tomatillo salsa, stir well. Cook the mixture for a 3-5 minutes.
Remove and reserve a little over half of the salsa in a flat sauté pan.

Enchiladas

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine shredded chicken with remaining salsa verde (in the original pot) and about 1/2 cup broth or chicken cooking liquid.
Mix well and heat for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Stirring occasionally. Taste the chicken to see if it needs more salt, cumin, black pepper or oregano.
If you're not sure, put a little taste of chicken on a spoon and top with a little more herbs or salt. If you like it better, then season the rest of the dish accordingly!
Once your meat is ready, take a large roasting dish (roughly 13.5" x 11") and cover the bottom with a thin layer of the reserved verde sauce.
Set out Cotija cheese on a plate, and break off a chunk to crumble from. Shred the other cheese.
Set out corn tortillas and begin to roast one at a time over a gas flame burner (or in a pan if you don't have one). You're not trying to brown them, just give them about 20 seconds of heat on each side.
Once each tortilla is roasted, place it in the pan with the reserved verde sauce and cover each side with the salsa. This process makes the tortillas pliable.
Next scrape off the sauce with a flat edged spatula.
Place the soft tortilla in the baking dish and fill with a spoonful of chicken, top with a bit of both cheeses. Roll the tortilla into a cigar. Press it down so it sticks and seals.
Repeat until you've used up all your tortillas.
Top each row of enchiladas with the remainder of the verde sauce, then garnish with more shredded cheese.
Bake enchiladas for 30-40 minutes until the cheese begins to brown slightly.

Serve

Serve topped with some fresh Cotija cheese and cilantro, alongside wilted greens topped with a heaping dollop of guacamole and fresh salsa. And/ or rice and beans.