Not so pretty but tasty chicken enchiladas, with a dolma bonus

Tortilla wrap, such a versatile food item. Wrap stuff up and eat it straight away, wrap and cook, brush it with oil and seasoning, cut into strips, bake and have with dip, add a cheese mixture, fold and fry until the cheese melts... Use a flat wrap as a pizza base, layer them with filling and make a taco cake, press them in to a bowl, bake and fill with goodies... The list is endless and I do not attempt to share all my tries, only one this time.

Chicken enchiladas are simple to make, but if you try to stuff them while the filling is still boiling hot, they may end up as ugly as mine. Another trick to make them look like something the cat dragged in is to over-stuff them, leaving too little wrap to use for wrapping. In my defence, I only wanted to eat one and I wanted as much filling as I could possibly get. Greed isn't pretty.

As in most of my recipes, I use what I happen to have at home and even a basic meal turns out different every time. This time I used:

onion

garlic

chestnut mushrooms

carrots

leek

cougette

pepper

chicken fillets

chopped tomatoes, tomato puree

salt & pepper

a fajita spice mix (cheating, I know)

If you don't have a cheat mix, you can use a combo of cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger and paprika.

1. Prepare the onion, garlic and mushrooms.

2. Prepare the rest of the vegetables.

3. Dice the chicken fillets.

4. Soften the onion and mushrooms in a little oil.

5. While the onion and mushroom mixture is cooking, get the extras ready.

6. Put the onion mixture aside when cooked and add the chicken to the pan instead. When it is partially cooked (when there is no visible pink any more) add seasoning. Mix well.

7. Add the cooked onion and mushrooms along with garlic and the vegetables that take a little longer to cook.

8. After a little while, add the rest of the vegetables. Mix well.

9. Add the chopped tomatoes and puree. Mix well.

10. Leave to cook until the chicken is thoroughly done and the vegetables are soft enough.

11. Add filling to your tortilla wrap, making sure you drain the sauce. If you want to, you can add some grated cheese before the rest of the filling. When you fold and place the enchiladas in the oven tray, the cheese will end up above the filling and melt into it. 

This is the tricky part that I tend to fail miserably at. There is far too much filling on the wrap in the photo. Greed... Greed is tasty, but it doesn't fold well and looks a mess.

12. Fold the wraps to the best of your ability and place them with the fold down in an oven tray. Top with cheese unless you have that inside the wrap or with sauce from the mixture. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until it looks done.

I'm sure your attempt will be far better than mine. Hunger is my excuse, as well as burnt fingers. Wanting to get it done quickly to placate my grumbling stomach, I decided not to wait until the filling was safe to handle and I didn't really care about making it pretty. Splish splosh, sauce on, into the oven. If I had made this for guests, I would have made a proper effort, honestly.

13. Serve and enjoy.

I like my enchiladas with a crisp and simple salad.

The chicken filling leftovers can be transformed into other meals. It will go well with pasta or like I did this time, as cabbage dolmas. 

1. Recover your box of leftover chicken filling.

2. Parboil cabbage leaves until they become pliable. When they fold over in the pan, they are normally done. Don't over-cook them, or they will break when wrapping.

I use savoy cabbage leaves and they take less cooking than white cabbage.

3. Cut away the thick end part of the stem. Add the filling.

This was a little bit too much filling (story of my life), but rather than boiling another leaf, I decided to hope for the best. I was lucky this time, just about...

4. Wrap up the filling in the cabbage leaves and place in container for later enjoyment. They should be ok to freeze.

When you want to warm them up, pop them into an oven tray and cover with tin foil so they don't burn, or add some sauce. They will take approximately 20 minutes to warm through from being fridge cold. If you have over-stuffed them like I did, make sure they l are placed close together so they don't unfold.