Daring Cooks - Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

I cheated. I really couldn't find fresh Anaheim chiles, not even canned, bottled, dried. The only type of chili I could find at my local grocer was regular green chili. The chilies were really tiny and I figured it'll be a PITA to de-skin and de-seed them after roasting, so I mixed in a couple of green bell peppers instead, although the recipe clearly states "Other green chiles (NOT bell peppers)...". Anyway, the sauce still turned out green and it was really spicy even without adding any hot sauce. As for tomatillos, I used tamarind paste as suggested, which I thought added a really nice tart flavour. I thickened the sauce by blending the mixture instead of adding corn starch. All in all, it turned out really tasty =)

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken legs - de-boned
  
• 2 medium avocados - sliced
• 5 tortillas (more if small)
• 200g grated cheese (I used matured cheddar)

For green chili sauce:

• 2 green bell peppers
• 3 green chilies
• 1/2-1 tbs (to taste) tamarind paste - seeds removed
• 1 garlic clove - minced
• 1 small onion - diced
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 500g Chicken stock
  
• Salt (to taste)

Directions:
Roasting Fresh Chilies/ Peppers:

• Switch oven to broil mode.
• Coat each chilies with oil.
• Lay chilies on a baking sheet.
• Place chilies under broil, turning the chilies every now and then so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.

• As they are completely charred, remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.
• Remove stems. Open the chili and remove the seeds. Turn the chili skin side up and with a paring knife, pull or scrape away the skin.
• Do not rinse.

Green Chili Sauce:

• Heat up a bit of oil in a pan.
• Fry onions until soft and translucent.
• Add garlic, fry until fragrant.
• Mix in roasted peppers and chilies, tamarind paste, oregano, black pepper, sugar and chicken stock. Bring to boil then lower heat to simmer for about 15 mins. PS. I would suggest adding 1/2 tbs of tamarind to start with first then add to taste later on as the Wild Boar thought it was too tart but it was ok for me.
  
• Puree everything in a blender.
• Return pureed mixture into the pan and keep simmering until thickened.
• I was deboning the chicken legs at this point, so I added the bones into the sauce too.

• Add salt to taste.

Grill chicken:

• Switch oven to broil mode.
• Sprinkle salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides of the chicken.
• Broil in the oven until browned.

• Cool for a bit then cut into strips.

For tortillas:

• Heat up a bit of oil in a pan.
• Cook tortillas (one by one) until lightly browned on both sides.

Stacked Green Chili and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas:

• Pre-heat oven to 220°C.
• Spread a thin layer of sauce on a baking sheet.
• Lay a sheet (or more if your tortillas are small) of tortilla on top of sauce. Spread 1/2 of the sliced avocado on the tortilla. Top with about 4 tbs of chili sauce and a handful of grated cheese.

• Cover with another sheet of tortilla. Spread 1/2 of the sliced chicken leg. Top with about 4 tbs of chili sauce and a handful of grated cheese.

• Cover with another sheet of tortilla then repeat with the rest of the avocado then another chicken layer.
• Finish with the 5th tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.

• The stack should look like this:

• Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes.