Daring Cooks: Stacked Enchiladas and Giveaway Winner

¡Hola! from the land of Daring Cooks. Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce, was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

Yes, I'm a Daring Cook. Yes, I'm late. Yes, I've been a Daring Cook for a long time without posting anything. Shame on me. I saw this dish, though and knew I had to make it. It didn't come out as pretty as I'd like, but the enchilada sauce was amazing. Click here for more!

I first made everything with a juicy cut of beef, and it was amazing. However, the sun had gone down by the time I was done setting up everything, so I just made some soft tacos with the meat.
I also made frijoles refritos (refried beans) and arroz mexicano (Mexican rice).
For the challenge, I stuck with all the basic and made the stacked enchiladas with chicken. I used chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts for added flavor but later found that I would have preferred the breast for this particular dish b/c the thigh's flavor took over the dish. It was still good, but the beef tacos with the same enchiladas sauce were a million times better.

I know I don't shred my chicken up very finely. I don't have time or patience for such shenanigans haha.

As I stated already, I really liked the recipe for the enchilada sauce. I will be making it over and over again. It was surprisingly mild but still very good. Next time I will add a couple of jalapeños along with the Anaheim peppers and tomatillos instead of hot sauce.

I altered the instructions for the sauce a bit by following what I've seen my (Mexican) ex-girlfriend's mother did when she prepared salsa verde (pronounced sort of like "BEHR-day").

I first grilled and scorched the Anaheim peppers and tomatillos.Then, I placed the hot peppers in a bag and peeled the skin off. These photos look gross!!Then, I used the blender for all the for scorched peppers and tomatillos along with garlic, cumin, Mexican oregano, salt, and lime juice. After blending everything I poured the contents in the saucepan and followed the instructions for Daring Cooks from there. Here is the Mexican Oregano I used in the sauce.

Of course, I made my own flour tortillas. Barbara, the co-host of this challenge was kind enough to link back to my site for the tortillas, and I used that very same recipe. I already blogged about how to make these tortillas ahead of time, so if you missed that post, you can go here.

Stacking the enchiladas was easy. (The sun had really gone down by now.)

It was nice to use homemade tortillas, sauce, and fresh monterey jack cheese...

...and fresh cilantro.This was a fantastic challenge. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't participated in the past challenge b/c it is more expensive to cook than bake. Also, I'm a picky eater, so many of the past dishes consisted of foods that I would not want to or could not eat. So I have to pick and choose my challenges. I wish I had the money to participate in all the challenges, but unfortunately, that isn't the case. Nevertheless, I enjoy looking at what others have done and see their interpretations on the dishes. I hope to be more active in the Daring Cooks and Bakers Groups this summer.

WINNER OF GUITTARD GIVEAWAY!
I used the Random Generator to pick out the winner of the "Bittersweet" giveaway, and the number was #7, which is WIZZY THE STICK of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Punch and One Thousand Faces (both BEAUTIFUL blogs) who stated:

What would I make? You mean what wouldn't I make with these chocolates! I would love to try the two cocoa powders most of all. Goodness there is ice-cream, mousse, truffles, brownies, ohhhhhhh molten cakes. Listen I don't live in any of the above countries but I do have a US address that I use for my Internet shopping can I participate in this giveaway?

Wow! Congratulations!! I'm really glad you won, chica! Send me an e-mail with your address information!