Authentic Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas are a Southern New Mexico version of classic Southwestern rolled enchiladas. In 1960 my parents moved to Southern New Mexico. My Mom was always a great cook but she definitely didn’t have Southern New Mexico food in her recipe repertoire. By the time that our family moved from New Mexico in the 1970’s, our food traditions had permanently changed to center around traditional New Mexico food for all seasons.
It is possible to prepare this recipe just like my Mom did. 1960’s authentic green chile chicken enchiladas entail cooking and deboning a whole chicken and roasting fresh green chiles before creating the creamy green sauce. This version uses rotisserie chicken and canned or frozen Hatch New Mexico chile. The one thing that never changes or gets updated is the stacked format of this dish. In Southern New Mexico, enchiladas are not rolled. They are stacked; layering tortillas, green chile sauce and cheese. This is important, because green chiles vary in their heat content from batch to batch and the stacked format is perfect to top with a soft fried egg. The yolk creates a cooling ‘gravy’ that melts into the enchiladas and provides much needed relief from overly spicy chiles.
Short Cuts and Hacks
You can really short cut on the green chile sauce and substitute undiluted condensed cream of celery and cream of chicken soup. When I create my sauce from scratch, I can make it allergy friendly. Also, I think that my from scratch method tastes more authentic and has deeper flavors. If you want to use the condensed soup, eliminate the first five ingredients (through the non-dairy milk) and reduce the chicken broth to one cup.
Hatch New Mexico green chiles are the gold standard for New Mexico cuisine. Hatch chiles are actually Anaheim chiles grown in the small town of Hatch, New Mexico. To skip roasting, steaming, peeling and seeding, I use frozen chopped Hatch chiles from the freezer section of the supermarket. If frozen chile isn’t available in your area, you can use canned Hatch chile (2 cans chopped chile and 1 can whole chile cut into 1 inch pieces).
If Hatch chiles aren’t available, you can use other brands. However, you will need to remove stems and pieces of peeling before putting them in the sauce. Also, other brands don’t have consistent flavor so you may need to add additional chiles to get the same flavor.
I tried substituting Hatch green enchilada sauce for my sauce and it just didn’t measure up.
Authentic Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Prep Time: 40 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes
Green Chile Sauce
1/2 c King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour
1/2 c high temperature cooking oil (not olive oil)
2 c thinly sliced celery
1/4 c water
1 1/2 c unsweetened non-dairy milk
2 3/4 c chicken broth divided
2 Tbsp roast chicken drippings (optional)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper (substitute black pepper if you don’t have white pepper)
1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano (not ground)
1 c frozen chopped mild Hatch New Mexico green chile
1 large yellow onion chopped
4 c diced or shredded rotisserie chicken (1- 3lb chicken)
In a 4 qt. saucepan, sweat the celery over medium low heat in 1/4 c water 8-10 minutes or until soft. Put the softened celery in a blender and add non-dairy milk. Blend until smooth and set aside. Wipe out moisture from saucepan, add 1 Tbsp oil. Cook onion over medium heat until soft and translucent. Remove onion from pan and reserve until later. Heat the 1/2 c high heat cooking oil over medium high heat. Slowly whisk in flour to create a roux. Cook the roux 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and slowly whisk in 1 3/4 c chicken broth. Add chicken drippings, spices, salt, pepper, sautéed onion, green chile, chicken and the rest of the chicken broth. If the sauce is too thick, add additional chicken broth. Simmer the green chile sauce 10 minutes.
Chicken Enchiladas
- 12 fresh corn tortillas
- 1 package of shredded Daiya Cheddar Cheese or 8 oz. grated
- green chile sauce
Spray an 8 – 10 inch oven safe deep round casserole dish with cooking spray. Start layering with the green chile sauce. Put 3/4 cup green chile sauce (enough to cover the bottom of the casserole) followed by a light sprinkle of shredded cheese topped by one corn tortilla and additional torn corn tortilla pieces to cover the entire surface. Continue layering sauce, cheese and tortillas finishing with sauce and cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted. If you use normal dairy cheese, let the cheese brown a bit around the edges and on top. Daiya cheese doesn’t brown.
You can refrigerate or freeze an unbaked casserole. Put the refrigerated or thawed, previously frozen casserole in a cold oven and turn on oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes covered with foil. Remove the foil once the enchiladas start to bubble and cook and additional 15 minutes.