Smothered enchiladas with all the fixins’ for the win.

My boyfriend is one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to cooking. How cheesy, I know. In all seriousness, he may single handedly be the reason I even started kitchen addiction. He’s always pushing me to do more and constantly reminds me of my potential and genuine love for what I do. On top of all of his love and support, he is my favorite guinea pig ever. He’s always the first to try something and give me constructive criticism. He tells me what he’s craving and I really become inspired. I never get sentimental so you can deal with it for one post! 

He also loves just about everything which reassured me he was a winner because he’s not picky and always down to try everything. Last night we talked about what we wanted to eat and enchiladas came up. I immediately went to the store and bought everything I needed and got some ideas brewing. I wanted them as healthy as possible so I did some ditching and swapping. I said goodbye to sour cream, heavy cheese and added lots of fresh veggies and corn tortillas instead of flour. I also used a great spice combo to eliminate an over load of salt and made a super easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce that is WAY better than anything store bought. If you don’t like spicy, just keep the cayenne pepper out of the recipe.

Ingredient Run Down…

• 1  pound of cubed chicken breast
• 12-16 corn tortillas (I used small ones) and lightly toasted them on the stove 
• 2 cups shredded cheese (any kind you like really)
• 1 can of black beans, washed and drained
• 1 large tomato diced
• 1 green bell pepper diced
• 1 can of yellow corn, drained
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 avocado diced
• 1 bundle of cilantro finely chopped
• 3 scallions chopped for garnish
• A tsp each of garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt & pepper.
• Olive oil
• My homemade enchilada sauce

Here we go…

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees before you start anything. 
2. In a large bowl, mix your cubed chicken with all of your seasonings.  Make sure they are evenly coated. Heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet and add your chicken. Cook until you see no more pink than add your onions and peppers. 
3. Cook until the chicken is cooked and veggies are tender. Roughly 7 minutes. Turn the heat on low and add 1/2 cup of your cheese, your beans & corn. On low! Let sit aside on low heat.
4. I have a gas burner so I can quickly toast up my tortillas but if you have electric, use a skillet with no oil on medium heat and put your tortillas in to warm up. The black spots are good! Means they are crispy and won’t fall apart when you assemble. You can not skip this step because the tortillas will fall apart if you don’t warm them.
5. Your warm chicken mixture is now ready to be loaded in your warm tortillas. Fill them and fold them tightly.
6. Place your tightly rolled tortillas together in a baking dish until full. 
7. Cover with your homemade (or store bought if you must) and then layer with all of your cheese. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes.
8. When done baking, garnish with your tomatoes, cilantro, scallions and avocado and serve!