WTH are no-cook enchiladas?!?! Yes, you still bake them! But I am anti-multi-step cooking! If you have been around my blog for more than a minute, you already know this of course. So many enchilada recipes I found online include starting with sautéing onions and butter and other spices then adding the soup for the sauce…ain’t nobody got time for that!
You are a super busy momma with kids running around screaming and poking each other in the eyeballs with swords made out of their Kinects. Let’s cut out some of those middle steps if we can, amIright??
One of my favorite parts of this recipe is that I start to feel like I am on one of those cooking shows, surrounded with pre-filled bowls full of all the fixings. Unfortunately, I am the one chopping and grating and filling those bowls. Oh well, somebody has to do it.
*Scroll to the end to see my favorite mommy hack!*
Prep work
First I either grate about 2+ish cups of cheddar cheese; now if I am grating this myself this ends up being a rather generous 2 cups! Otherwise, just get the package of already grated cheese, the 2 cup bag of the Winco brand grated cheese is 1.98 – well worth it in my book! Set this bowl aside and start on your second bowl; for this bowl cut up about 2 cups of leftover chicken (the rubber chicken is great for this!).
For the third bowl, use a medium to large size mixing bowl, and combine one 4oz can of green chiles with two cans of cream of mushroom soup (or MYO if you are feeling adventurous!). Sprinkle in some onion powder and garlic powder/salt and any other spices your family likes…I usually stop with just the two basics that I seem to add to everything.
This is where I diverge again from most of the recipes I see online. They say to reserve out about ¼ of the mixture and add in either milk or sour cream for your topping. Then mix in the chicken and cheese to the big mixing bowl. Again, this just seems like a bunch of extra steps. Luckily for me, I am feeding an army of non-foodies, non-picky eaters! So adjust all of this according to the likes/needs of your tribe.
I simply set up my assembly line of bowls and start filling tortillas – chicken, cheese, sauce – roll up and place seems-side down. This recipe usually fills about 6 generous enchiladas for me. Then whatever sauce is still in the bowl is what I pour and smothered over the top of the enchiladas…not very scientific!
Add wine to the cook
Whatever cheese is leftover save aside in a safe place away from grubby, sticky fingers! This might be the hardest part of the recipe! 🙂 Cover the dish with tin foil and bake on 350 for 30 minutes. Then take out the pan and uncover. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top and bake for about 5 more minutes for the cheese to melt.
Let sit for a few minutes to cool before serving, but if your house is anything like mine once that smell is permeating you won’t be able to hold off the monsters (er, kids) for very long!
This is such a great weeknight recipe for me. Once you have done it a few times, the prep time isn’t very long. And one of my favorite parts of any recipe that bakes for any period of time is that you have about half an hour to get other stuff done. I will either try to get my oldest to sit at the table and work on some homework; or I might empty the dishwasher and get all the dirty dishes out of my sink so that after I eat – when I am in a food coma – I am not facing a ton of dishes. Either way it usually involves a glass of chilled wine!
Mom Hack
One last mom hack idea: if you have any time in the morning or midday while the kids are at school or napping. Do all the prep work ahead of time and then store in the fridge until dinner. When you get home from whatever sports/music lesson you have been stuck at (er, enjoying!) you simply pre-heat and pop dinner in the oven. Voila! Otherwise, it really is a super easy, low cost, no extra-stove-top-cooking-required recipe. Try it and tell me what you think.
