Enchilada Victory!

The tweaked Chicken Enchiladas worked!!!! I love it when a plan comes together! Yesterday I talked about coming up with a plan to make chicken enchiladas from leftover chicken and dumplings. It was all very basic, really, just had to think it through.

I had to heat the C&D (chicken & dumplings) to get them to drain enough in the colander. While this was going on I chopped onions & peppers and grated the white Vermont cheddar. Once the C&D drained, I just had to take a fork to shred the chicken and chop the dumplings all at the same time. That was a time saver.

I had used the usual suspect herbs in making the C&D like sage, rosemary, thyme...the things used in poultry seasoning....and considered I better add some yellow Vermont cheddar and the chopped peppers to the C&D to mask the normal C&D flavor a bit more. I also grated some onion to go in the C&D mixture. Worked like a charm.

For the C&D stock to magically turn into enchilada cream sauce I added some of the white cheddar, a bit of finely grated mozzarella cheese and Greek yogurt as a substitute for sour cream.

I rolled the tortillas up in a wet dishtowel & warmed in microwave for 40 seconds, just enough to make them more pliable. Then filled and rolled the enchiladas, placing them in a 13X9 baking dish sprayed with cooking oil. I poured the 'secret' sauce over them, lifting to make sure some of it got under them as well. Covered them with the rest of the white cheddar, topped that with chopped white onions and added a bit of Smoked Paprika for a touch of color and that subtle smoky taste. Baked @ 450 till bubbly hot and starting to brown just a touch. Served the enchiladas with refried beans (traditional style but no fat ) sprinkled with grated yellow cheddar cheese and finely chopped purple onion.

First, let's just say upfront that nothing smells better than cheese and onions baking together so the mouth gets ready for that early on! The texture was great, the dumplings were indistinguishable from the chicken. The sauce was melted and creamy, just like it is suppose to be. No trace of the former C&D could be tasted...I seriously tried to find any trace but there was none!

Ok, I've shared all that to say it doesn't take much to serve leftovers in a different form. While it may have sounded like a long process, it really wasn't. It just took some thought. The preparation went quickly and smoothly because I thought through what it would take to pull it off. I consider that sort of thing an interesting challenge. It's all in how you look at it. It can drudgery and too much trouble or it can be an interesting challenge. We get to make choices about how we approach things. If we have to cook anyway, might as well make it fun!

Also, let me say it is ok to get experimental. You will have your own victories and you will have flops. I DO!!! No one makes a home run all the time. I made a stir-fry dish not too long ago with brown rice. I cooked it all in a large cast iron skillet. It had soy sauce in it...see where this is going? It looked awful! It was shades of brown and gray thanks to the cast iron skillet, brown rice & soy sauce. It tasted good but it was rather hard to get around the visual. Since I had used left over rice and meat in the first place, I wasn't so bent on holding on to those leftover! LOL See, this was considered a major flop even tho it tasted good. It happens!!

You just have to stop being intimidated...or lazy (which ever applies) and try. New recipes are created when people tweak an old one. Consider yourself a culinary explorer and jump in. My friend, Mina, is the recipient of leftovers on occasion and she loves it. Share that which you are tired of eating or transform it into something new and exciting. Tweak it!!