I hate cooking chicken.

I think it’s all the scare tactics people use when talking about salmonella and separate cutting boards. It’s also the slimy factor when I remove the skin or trim off extra fat.

I would use ground meat for every recipe if I could.

Despite my hatred for cooking it, I do enjoy eating chicken, so I will often work past my bias in the search for something good for dinner.

I was checking out the clearance meat at our local grocery store recently and found a great deal on chicken legs, so I bought them and ended up de-boning so, so many of them for this week’s recipe and for use in quesadillas and lunch wraps the rest of the week.

So know that when I say this recipe was worth working with chicken, that’s saying something.

I found this recipe on the site “Centsless Meals.” You can find it at https://centslessdeals.com/sour-cream-chicken-enchiladas-recipe/. I added some seasoning and didn’t include onions in my version.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Print Recipe

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Sour cream chicken enchiladas are an extremely quick dinner, especially if you use pre-cooked chicken to make them.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Keyword: chicken, enchiladas, green chiles, Monterrey jack cheese, sour cream

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 4 ounces diced green chiles
  • 1 rotisserie chicken or 3 cups cooked chicken shredded
  • 16 ounces Monterrey jack cheese shredded
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 10 taco-sized flour tortillas

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for a couple minutes until it starts to brown.
  • Whisk in the chicken broth until the lumps are worked out of the mixture.
  • Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens, stirring regularly.
  • Mix in the sour cream and green chiles (I lightly drained mine). Stir until it’s smooth.
  • In another bowl, combine the chicken, about one cup of cheese, cumin, salt and pepper.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Pour about 1 cup of the sauce (or just enough to cover the bottom) into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
  • Put about one-third cup of the chicken mixture into each tortilla and roll them up tightly (leaving the ends open). Place each one into the bottom of the pan. They’ll be pretty tightly packed in there.
  • Evenly distribute the rest of the sauce over top of the tortillas and top with the rest of the cheese.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cheese is starting to brown on top.

If you use a precooked rotisserie chicken for this recipe, it should make for a very quick dinner, but even with me boiling a mess of chicken legs on the stove, it came together pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, while Joey did get a great dinner (and subsequent leftovers) out of this meal, he did have to listen to me complain as I dealt with chicken skin and tendons in the kitchen. I was hoping maybe he’d come volunteer to help, but I suspect he may share my feelings on dealing with the slimy stuff.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 22, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.