Make ahead meals - how often do you prepare them for yourself or family? I've found myself making them more often these days since The Baron has been so helpful in the kitchen lately. He's the master of preheating ovens and if I have a make ahead dish ready, he'll pop them in the oven to finish cooking or warm up while I'm commuting home. It's wonderful... to come home after a long day at the office, have dinner already in the oven, the table set and be able to decompress for a bit while The Baron plays a bit with Joel. He's a keeper folks! :) A recent make ahead meal I made was this dish for Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas. Tender shreds of chicken is combined with a zesty chipotle sauce and cheese as a filling for corn tortillas that are rolled up and baked with more sauce and cheese. Gloriously delicious and easy to make...
So for this dish, you can roast a whole chicken and debone to use the chicken in the recipe.... or you can take the easy route and use a store bought rotisserie chicken instead. I got about 3 cups of chicken, which was perfect for this recipe. However if you want more chicken in each enchilada, use 2 rotisserie chickens which may yield about 6 cups after deboning. The chipotle sauce was nice and zesty with a bit of kick. You can hold back on the chipotle if you want it more on the mild side - adapt it to your tastes! I included the make ahead directions below within the recipe too if you want to make this to freeze and enjoy later.
Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas
recipe adapted from Baking Bites
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tablespoon flour or gluten free flour blend*
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (or more to taste)
12-oz tomato paste
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken (from rotisserie chicken)
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterrey jack cheese
12 medium-sized corn tortillas
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, combine the shredded rotisserie chicken, 1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup shredded cheese; set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add oil. When oil is hot, add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until mixture is smooth to create a roux.
Stir in the dry spices to the roux and add in chipotle peppers, tomato paste, chicken stock and salt. Stir to incorporate all the ingredients in the saucepan and bring to a simmer, lower heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, until slightly thickened.
Spread about 3/4 cup sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan , or if freezing as a make ahead meal, use a disposable aluminum pan or a microwave/dishwasher/oven safe baking pan. Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture (or a little less) in each tortilla and roll it up like a cigar. Place in the baking dish and repeat with all remaining chicken and tortillas to create an even layer of rolled tortillas on the bottom of the pan. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and sprinkle cheese over the top.
At this point, you can cover and freeze the dish as a make ahead meal. Otherwise, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving with guacamole and sour cream.
To bake the freezer meal, defrost completely and bake as directed above.
*Gluten free flour blend:
This is the best combination for my personal uses and has never failed me. I purchased a majority of the ingredients at an Asian market (at less than $.99/lb) and the other ingredients marked were Bob Red Mill brand. Cornstarch was Argo brand.
300 grams superfine brown rice flour (Bob's Red Mill)
250 grams sweet rice flour (Asian market)
150 grams tapioca flour (Asian market)
100 grams sorghum flour (Bob's Red Mill)
100 grams potato starch (Asian market)
100 grams cornstarch (Argo brand)
Whisk together the above flours and store in an air tight container. To use, measure out 140 grams for every cup called for in your favorite baking recipe (NOT yeast bread recipes.) Add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum for every cup used in the recipe as well to help with texture and binding. Voila! You can bake gluten free with confidence!