Yesterday, I took you through the process of making your own (and better!) Nice Enchilada Sauce.
Today, let us gather and actually do the deed! I used four cups of shredded turkey leftover from Thanksgiving, but you could use leftover cooked chicken, or mebbe even duck for a different take.
I based this recipe on one I got from a food kit, because I was intrigued by their use of softened cream cheese in the filling.
Except…
The food kit folx always sent me “light” cream cheese, and so I replaced it with some of my preferred flavored creamm cheeses; in this case, spicy jalapeño and garlic & herb.
In truth, I do not really care that much for the garlic & herb cheese for spreading on a bagel, but I do like the zip it adds when I cook with it, so here we are.
INGREDIENTS
Filling:
•4 cups shredded cooked turkey
•2 tbsp jalapeño cream cheese
•2 tbsp garlic & herb cream cheese
•2 tbsp Buffalo seasoned cream cheese
•10 oz frozen corn kernels
•1 cup diced onion & celery
•1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce – or your fave hot sauce, to taste
•Chopped fresh parsley
Add, after turkey (too thick):
•1/2 cup milk
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tbsp Buffalo style whipped cream cheese
•1 tsp black pepper
Enchiladas:
•Flour tortillas
•Enchilada sauce
•Shredded cheese
Toppings:
•Sour cream
•Sliced scallions
•Shredded lettuce
•Catalina French Dressing
*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.
Heat your oven to 400º and apply cooking spray to a large baking pan.
Warm the garlic-infused olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, then add the diced onion and celery.
Cook, stirring often, for five minutes, then add the Sherry Peppers and Cajun Power sauces,cooking and stirring until and pan liquids have been cooked off.
Add the corn, and parsley and cook, stirring often, for another five minutes.
Add the cream cheeses and stir until you have a thick sauce.
Stir in the turkey.
At this point, I thought the sauce was a bit too thick, so I added the milk, some more of the Buffalo cream cheese, more Sherry Peppers Sauce, and the black pepper.
I gave it five more minutes to come together before tasting.
Now, it was perfect!
Spoon the filling onto a flour tortilla, then roll up, and arrange, seam side down, in your prepared baking pan.
Note: I had more than enough filling to fill a 13×9 inch baking pan with enchiladas, but it was just the two of us, so I used a smaller pan which fit seven nicely stuffed enchiladas and froze the remainder, mebbe for quick quesadillas later.
Spread your Enchilada Sauce evenly over the top, cover the pan with foil, and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the foil and spread your shredded cheese of choice over the top. I used a four cheese Mexican blend with added jalapeños.
Pop back into the oven, uncovered, for ten minutes more, until the cheese is nicey melted and the enchiladas are nicely heated through and mebbe just a bit bubbly.
Remove from the oven and let rest for five minutes before serving.
A note about the Catalina French Dressing. Yes it actually does go really well with a dish like this, and is also pretty darned stellar with this Taco Salad.
As someone once told me, eat with your mouth, not your ears.