Chicken Enchiladas with Red Sauce

  Sorry for the delay in posts this week...I'm working some long hours at work and my free time has become a little consumed with studying for my upcoming GRE test. On to the enchiladas...I grew up eating enchiladas on a regular basis, but we always had green sauce enchiladas. I rarely ever ate red sauce enchiladas at all and I'm not sure why because I love them! A few weeks ago one of my girl friends had me over for dinner and made some traditional red sauce enchiladas, then right after, I saw this recipe in The America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, and knew I had to make them. I liked the idea of being able to make the red sauce myself without having to resort to a can but I was skeptical about how easy it would be to make the red sauce. The sauce is actually beyond easy to make and comes together so quickly, can be made ahead of time and frozen, and has great flavor. The original recipe included cilantro, but I already have an enchilada recipe with a lot of cilantro in it and wanted an enchilada recipe that felt as different as I could make it from that recipe, so I omitted the cilantro. Enjoy :)

Red Sauce Enchiladas

Red Enchilada Sauce:

1 teaspoon canola oil

1/2 onion, minced

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons sugar

2 cans tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

Salt and pepper

Enchiladas:

about 1 lb of chicken breasts or breast tenders

salt and pepper

2 1/2 cups of enchilada sauce

1 cup finely crumbled queso fresco or feta cheese

12 soft corn tortillas

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

lime wedges

  To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add the onion, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and sugar and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato sauce and water, bring to a simmer, and cook until slightly thickened about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

  To make the enchiladas, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper, then add the chicken to the enchilada sauce in the pan (or add it all to a warmed pan together if you made the sauce ahead of time or are using canned sauce). Bring to a simmer over medium low heat, about 10-15 minutes. When the sauce is simmering flip the chicken over, cover and continue to cook until the chicken is done about another 10-15 minutes. 

  Transfer the chicken to a bowl and shred it into bit size pieces when cool enough to handle. Combine the chicken, 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce and queso fresco in the bowl. Warm tortillas in the oven or a pan until they are soft. Then work quickly while tortillas are still soft, place some of chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla, roll up and place seam side down in a 13x9 inch baking dish. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and filling. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheddar and a little queso fresco. Bake until the enchiladas are heated through, about 13-15 minutes, and until cheese is melted. Serve with lime wedges.