Dinner - Chicken Enchiladas

Today was one of those afternoons I came home during my lunch break to let out the pups, so it was the perfect day to throw some food into the crockpot to have ready when I got home for dinner! (That always seems to be the problem with crockpot meals...it's either 4 hours on low or 6 on high so I can't time it right for a full day) For these types of half days, one of the quickest and easiest things to throw together is filling for chicken enchiladas.

To the crockpot I added two chicken breasts, half an onion (chopped), a can of diced green chiles, a heaping tablespoon of jarred jalapenos, 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1 tsp. garlic powder, salt and pepper. For crockpot recipes I will often use frozen chicken breasts since they will have plenty of time to cook and seem to work well for shredding. Once I threw it all in the crockpot, I set it to low and returned to work!

Once I got home (about 5 hours later), I had a cooked and ready filling to shred!

The easiest way for me to shred chicken is simply to put it in a large bowl and pull it apart with two forks. I don't have any of those fancy barbecue tools so this works just fine.

Once the chicken was shredded and the remaining liquid added from the crockpot to make sure it wasn't overly dry, I rounded up the remaining ingredients; tortilla shells, enchilada sauce, and shredded colby jack cheese. 

Now, before I go any further, I want to warn you that not all enchilada sauces are made equal. Personally, I like Old El Paso brand because it has the perfect amount of Tex-Mex flavor. However, if you would rather have a more authentic Mexican flavor, you can certainly try out other brands...to me they just don't taste quite the way I like.

To assemble the enchiladas, I added about 1/2 cup of filling to the center or a large tortilla. 

I then tightly rolled the tortillas up, folded the edges, and laid them in a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish.

I poured two cans of enchilada sauce onto the assembled enchiladas and then covered the top with cheese...you can certainly add more or less sauce and cheese depending on what you prefer.

I baked the dish in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes, until the top was golden and bubbly. Once I pulled it out of the oven I let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes before digging in. I served it with some fajita rice as a side and sour cream on top. For the fajita rice, I simply added sauteed onions and red peppers to cooked white rice, then seasoned with cumin, salt, and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!