Friday Food.....on Saturday

 I still have several of the roosters in the freezer from our first ever batch of chickens and I alternate between cooking one of them and one of the broiler chickens, which are much better for baking or roasting.  The assorted roosters are just a little too lean to make a good baking chicken but I was determined to find the best way to cook them and not waste any.  What I found is a super easy way to cook them.  I just defrost one and simmer it in a big pot for 1 to 2 hours.  This accomplishes several things:  1. I get at least a half a gallon of good, fresh chicken stock for seasoning and soups.  2.  The chicken meat is extremely easy to pull off the bone, assuring it's all used with no waste and it's very tender.  (the bones then go back into the stock pot to simmer another hour or so.)  3.  I now have a couple of pounds of juicy chicken meat to use in whatever recipe I decide on.  I've been bad to just bake a chicken, because it's so easy, and not experiment with new ways to cook them and this way I have to come up with a new recipe.
Southern Living just happen to put out a bunch of new chicken recipes this week so I decided to their Chicken Enchiladas.  It was very good.

Chicken Enchiladas

5 tablespoons of butter, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
3 (4 oz.) cans diced green chilies, divided
3 cups shredded Colby-Jack cheese, divided
8 soft taco size tortillas
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
Toppings: fresh cilantro, chopped tomato, shredded lettuce, etc.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a large skillet over medium heat;  add onion and bell pepper, saute' 5 minutes or until tender.

Stir together onion mixture, chicken, 1 can diced chilies and 2 cups shredded cheese.  Spoon a heaping 1/3 cup onto each tortilla and roll up.  Arrange tortillas , seams down, in a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt remaining butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; whisk in flour until smooth.  Cook, whisking constantly 1 minute.  Gradually stir in broth and milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes or until thick and bubbly.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining 2 cans of chilies.

Remove enchiladas from oven and pour green chili mixture over enchiladas.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake at 350 degrees (F.) for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly.  Serve with desired toppings.

Now, I used corn tortillas instead of flour because I like the texture better for enchiladas.  I also added a little cumin, garlic, red pepper flakes and cilantro to the chicken mixture because I didn't have any green chilies.  Oh, I also added some fresh yellow corn to this mixture.  I had more chicken than what they called for so my recipe ended up making about 16 tortillas; it filled the whole pan, but I just whipped up a little more sauce than what they called for.  In fact, I made extra to pour over the enchiladas right before serving as you can see in the photo.  I thought it was quite yummy and apparently Jack did too.  It would be good served with a small salad too.

Since we've found a local source for fresh, mostly organic, actually tasty strawberries, we have bought about 4 gallons to put up.  I took a couple of cups and mixed with some store bought rhubarb to make this pie last night.  Yummyyyyyy!!!!  Yeah, I know my crust is messy and kinda wonky but who cares!  It doesn't last long!