Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

I think we can all agree that there is very little point to eating any kind of diet lifestyle if it means that enchiladas are suddenly off the menu.  Unlike sugar-coated chocolate caramel cake nobs that are, by design, for the strict purpose of building fat asses, enchiladas are sufficiently flexible to modify for most eating plans, except for strict paleo.  The mantra for this recipe is this:

No. Corn.  More specifically, no corn tortillas.  But, Adventure Cooker, what about organic corn tortillas? To which I would reply that genetically modified corn seeds grown organically are still genetically modified and therefore unfit for healthy lifestyle food consumption.  I could go on and on with the damage done to our American food supply by the propagation of GMO seeds, but I'll leave that to the food supply conspiracy theorist folks.  Besides the risks of GMO foods being largely unresearched and therefore unreported, corn is also a huge source of starch and sugar that the body doesn't need if the expectation is for it to function optimally.  Corn and cake belong in the same category: very rarely, if at all.  

Allergen Notes: Dairy

Lifestyle: Clean Eating, Gluten Free, Lacto-Paleo (with modification)

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

1 rotisserie chicken, boned and chopped

12-16 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups quinoa flakes

1/2 onion, chopped

Green chile sauce

Green Chile Sauce

16+ ounces of roasted, chopped green chile

1 cup chicken broth

3 TBSP arrowroot powder

1 TBSP coconut oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1-2 tsp ground cumin (this is a to-taste kinda thing)

1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp oregano

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

To make the sauce, heat a sauce pan with coconut oil.  Add the chopped onion and cook until starting to look translucent.  Add the green chile, chicken broth, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and oregano.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and let simmer for 20-30 minutes.  Mix the arrowroot powder with 1/4 c - 1/2 cup of cold water (or cold chicken broth).  Bring the chile sauce to a rolling boil and whisk in the arrowroot powder to thicken the sauce.  Be judicious to not over-thicken because, unlike corn starch, arrowroot powder can make your sauce into a pudding by overuse.  Once thickened, remove from heat.  

Spray a 9x9 inch baking pan with oil.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup of quinoa flakes on the bottom.  Place layer of chicken, and top with chopped onions and a generous portion of cheese.  Ladle green chile sauce over cheese and chicken, and repeat the next layer: quinoa flakes, chicken, onions, cheese, and chile.  Top with remaining quinoa flakes.  

Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. 

Now, let's spend some time reviewing the ingredients list, starting with the chicken.  If you are truly into the know-where-your-food-comes-from crowd, then find yourself one of these: 

 And, turn it into one of these:

Or, just buy one from the store.  A lot of times I will buy a whole roaster and cook it myself, but more often than not, since time is often a commodity, I'll buy a rotisserie chicken from the store.  Here's the thing about chicken: Vegetarian fed chickens are nice and non-hormone and non-antibiotic treated vegetarian fed chickens are even better.  But, what all those lack are the natural vitamin and mineral content of a chicken that is pasture raised on a normal diet for chickens.  Vegetarian fed usually means corn and soy, which, as we all know from corn fed cows, makes for a fat chicken but one with very little nutritional value.  Finding pasture raised chickens is tricky, not to mention expensive, so most of us will have to content ourselves with our best available commercial options.  

 
Cheese.  SHARP cheddar cheese.  Sharp cheddar and green chile are together a combination fit for the palates of royalty, which is to say, you.  Since awareness is 90% of the cooking and eating battle, cheese is a perfect example of how to start learning to exercise awareness.  Read the labels:  Orange cheeses are food dyed that way, so check to make sure your cheese is dyed with anatto and not a chemical yellow food dye.  If you are trying to stay completely dye free, look for naturally white sharp cheddar.  Also, check for labeling that ensures the cheese was made from cows not treated with rBST.  One last word on cheese, give strong consideration to shredding the cheese freshly from a block.  Commercially packaged pre-shredded cheese is coated with a silicate to prevent the cheese from clumping and sticking together.  Since we don't eat the silicate packets from our vitamin bottles, I would also suggest you shouldn't be eating food-grade silicate that coats pre-shredded cheese.  

The chopped onions in this recipe was an idea I took from the enchiladas served at the Golden Pride restaurant in Albuquerque, NM.  Because the onions don't cook through during the baking process, there is this bright textural crunch that heightens the enchilada experience.  The trick here is to not overuse the onions.  You just want a noticeable sprinkle on each layer, nothing more.

While I grant that some may thing that quinoa flakes are a poor substitute for corn tortillas, I will put forward that they do one thing much better and that is add a richness and flavor to the enchiladas that far surpasses anything a corn tortilla can do.  I'm sure there are loads of quinoa flake brands out there, but this is the brand I have access to and I've been very happy with it.

By omitting the quinoa all together this recipe could qualify as a lacto-paleo recipe, meaning it fits within the paleo paradigm for those paleo eaters who are still consuming portions of dairy.  Whether or not you could still call it an enchilada at that point is a matter of some debate.




During chile season there is no reason at all why you shouldn't be buying your chile pods fresh and roasting them yourself for the purpose of making your own sauce.  However, since we here at Adventure Cooker Cooking respect the noose of time constraints using frozen chile will also work.

I'd discourage buying pre-made sauce for two reasons: corn starch and sodium.  By making the sauce from scratch you are controlling all the secondary and tertiary contributions to its make up that allow this meal to be considered a healthy part of the recipe rotation or just a salt-packed, corn by-product, gut-inflaming indulgence.

Bake these enchiladas in a covered glass or ceramic dish for 30-45 minutes.  After they come out of the oven, let them stand (still covered) for 10 or so minutes before cutting in and eating them.  Pair this with some amazing guacamole and a blisteringly cold pinot grigio.  Enjoy!