I love Mexican food. Whenever I go out to eat Mexican I am always amazed at how deliciously unique it is. I have never had a Mexican dish that I have not liked. Most cultures have food items that are just not very tasty. For instance the Chinese have several items on their menu that I won’t even go near, one of them being fish head soup. Italian is pretty good. I can’t think of anything that they have that scares me but the English on the other hand have blood sausage, blood pudding and they will put just about anything into a pie. Then there are the bug eating cultures that I see on the Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman show. The host has a way of making the most disgusting thing seem like some sort of gourmet treat. But I’m not fooled.
Going to a Mexican restaurant on the other hand for me is like going to Costco. I want everything. Tamales, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, chili rellenos, chimichangas, pollo fundidos, rice and refried beans all piled up on a large platter smothered in rich tasty sauces and covered with cheese, guacamole and sour cream. Nothing scary about that.
When I do go out to eat Mexican food I usually find myself trying to figure out how they make some of that stuff. I have figured out how they make those nice red sauces they serve over chicken and beef enchiladas but the green suiza sauce has been a bit of a challenge until now.
There is a little Mexican restaurant right here in Ashton that makes a delicious chicken enchilada suiza and yesterday I successfully duplicated it. Well I don’t know if I actually duplicated it but I came real close and it tasted good. No complaints from the family and my kindergarten boy who eats hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches exclusively actually ate some of it too.
I put two whole chickens in a large pot of water with an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and some black pepper and simmered real slowly while we were at church (about 3 1/2 hours. When we got home I pulled out the chicken and stripped the meat from the bones and placed it in a large bowl. I added salt and pepper to taste and then two cans of cream of chicken soup and about 10 ounces of sour cream and about 8 ounces of Monterey Jack cheese and 4 ounces of medium cheddar cheese. I folded it all together carefully so as not to shred the chicken.
Then I made the green suiza sauce. I took one can of green enchilada sauce and placed it into a 2 quart sauce pan. I added 1 can cream of chicken soup, about 6 ounces of sour cream, 4 small cans of green chilies that I pureed in the blender, a little garlic powder and salt to taste. I placed it on low as I got the enchiladas ready. Later I realized that the green sauce turned out a little creamier than the restaurants but it was still really good. For more of a green chili flavor and less creamy I would drop the cream of chicken soup from the sauce recipe.
Next the wife warmed up flour tortillas on our Teflon griddle so they would be flexible and I slopped a dollop or two of the chicken mixture on the tortilla and rolled them up and placed them in our large roasting pan. Once I had them all rolled up and crammed into the pan I spread a generous amount of the green sauce over all of them making sure that they were all covered with, but not swimming in the sauce. Then I lightly covered the enchiladas with cheddar cheese and placed them uncovered in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
They turned out great. The wife and I just loved them but the kids were thrown off by the green sauce. When they see anything green they a get bit skeptical. They ate it though without any complaints.
I used the outstanding chicken stock from the boiled chickens to make some nice Spanish rice and we opened up a couple of cans of refried beans to complete a very delicious meal.
This recipe of mine may not be authentic but like most Mexican food it sure is good.