Just like our slimmed-down Mexican lasagna, we’ve taken a traditionally unhealthy and indulgent dish, and made it guilt-free and still really F’in tasty. The only not completely ‘healthy’ ingredient is the cheese, and let’s be honest, if you don’t eat cheese, you might be on the wrong website…
This recipe stems from some turkey enchiladas that are sometimes carried at Whole Foods. I say “sometimes”, because while they’re ridiculously delicious, finding these enchiladas seem to be the equivalent of catching a leprechaun. From what I can tell, they make these every 17th Tuesday and on non-religious bank holidays that fall on Thursdays… during the Winter Solstice.
After the sixty-fifth or so time they weren’t in stock, and after pulling my shit back together after my tantrum in front of the salad bar, I decided to attempt to replicate these tasty F’ers myself. Turns out, it’s actually a pretty simple and straightforward recipe that comes together quickly and delivers delicious leftovers for several days.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a very large skillet or stock pot, heat olive oil over moderately high heat. Add onions and CHOPPED red bell peppers (we’ll use the sliced ones later on) and sauté until softened, about 8 minutes or so. Add meat and cook until browned throughout. When meat is fully cooked, if you still have a lot of grease and fat, you can opt to drain it off at this point. With pan still over heat, add tomatoes, green chiles and all spices and stir well to combine and cook for an additional minute or so. Remove pan from heat and add 1/2 cup of the pepper jack cheese and stir to combine. Next, lay a tortilla in a greased 13×9 baking dish. Spoon about 1/4 or so of the meat mixture into tortilla and tuck ends and fold over just enough to overlap, then rotate until the enchilada is seam side down. (These will be more “burrito” size then traditional enchilada size.) Repeat until all meat is used up, we get about 4-5 enchiladas out of this usually. Drizzle enchilada sauce (or salsa) over the center of all the enchiladas. It won’t be enough to fully cover them and that’s OK. Next, sprinkle cheese over area where the sauce is and top entire dish with SLICED red bell peppers, cilantro and green onions. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake for an additional 10. These are great served with sliced avocado.
serves 6-8
Love enchiladas! These look great, being healthy is a bonus too. 🙂
You can also make a killer casserole (that’s way less labor) by just alternating layers of the meat mixture with a single layer of corn tortillas (ending with meat) and topping the same way you would the enchiladas.