CHICKEN ENCHILADA SPAGHETTI

I am a Mexican food addict.  Regular spaghetti with pasta sauce?  Meh.  Spaghetti with spicy enchilada sauce, veggies, chicken and cheese?  Yes, please!  Usually, I cook chicken to make this dinner, but I got lazy and purchased a rotisserie chicken breast instead.  SO MUCH BETTER!  The flavor was fabulous.  This recipe is huge and uses an entire pound of pasta, so feel free to halve it if you're still determined to maintain your summer bikini bod.

Important notes:  Depending on the brand of enchilada sauce you use, you may want to adjust your cayenne pepper amount.  Perhaps taste before adding the extra heat!  Also, if you salt your pasta water enough, you won't need to add salt at the end.

Love love love this paprika.

The most delicious cooking shortcut!

Ingredients

1 lb spaghetti (regular, not thin)
Shredded rotisserie chicken breast, about 3 cups
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cans chopped green chiles, 4.5 oz each
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
3 cans red enchilada sauce, 10 oz each
1-2 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese
salt, to taste

Boil spaghetti in salted water according to directions on box for al dente.  Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat, then add olive oil.  When smoking, add onions and cook for a couple minutes, until soft.  Add chopped green chiles, undrained.  Cook for another 5 minutes.  Add garlic and stir for one minute.  Stir in cumin, chili powder, paprika and cayenne.  Pour in enchilada sauce and let simmer for about 8 minutes, until sauce has reduced a bit.  Add chicken and heat through, about 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Using tongs, add spaghetti in small batches to the sauce and combine.  Gently fold in the cheese and serve!  

CHILE COLORADO BURRITOS

Shredded beef burritos smothered in meaty sauce and cheese.  That's all you need to know before you make this meal.  Oh, and the meat is cooked to tender perfection in a crockpot all day long.  If you aren't sold, I feel sad for you.

Now, this recipe adventure could be filed under failure AND disaster.  There are tons of recipes out there for homemade enchilada sauce, so I decided to give it a shot.  It was awful.  Not sure if it was that particular recipe, or I just love the canned stuff too much.  Anyone out there have a fabulous, homemade version to share with me?

Onto plan B.  Luckily, there are always several cans of enchilada sauce in our pantry, so this meal wasn't ruined.  It was the opposite.  This was amazing.  Please make this meal ASAP.   This made 8 burritos, but if you don't want leftovers or aren't feeding a crowd, just halve the recipe.

Quickly give the stew meat a quick browning in the skillet, then throw it in the crockpot.

Pour in enchilada sauce, chopped green chiles, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, bay leaves and salt.  Cook on low allllllllll day long.

Usually, flour tortillas get a weird, sticky and gummy texture when they get super saucy.  Luckily, Trader Joe's Trader Jose's exists.  My friend Kat served these amazing tortillas with tacos and I was instantly converted.  They keep their texture when smothered with sauce and taste like they're from a restaurant.  Do yourself a favor and get some.

You can stick with an all meat filling, or throw some beans in there as well.  These chorizo refried beans are deliciously flavorful and have a slight kick.  Found them at World Market.

The first night we had this meal, we did beans and meat.  The burritos were super filling and one was enough for a meal.  Spread on beans, top with drained beef.

Oh, hey feet.

OR fill with meat and cheese, like we did with the leftovers.

Roll them up burrito style, smother with sauce and cheese, then stick under the broiler for a few minutes.

Serve these with rice and beans or a side salad with sour cream and guacamole.

With white rice and chorizo refried beans.

With Uncle Ben's chicken rice and refried black beans.

Ingredients

3 lbs lean stew meat
3 cans enchilada sauce, 10 oz each
1 can chopped green chiles, 4.5 oz
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cumin
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt

shredded cheese
refried beans
rice

Brown meat in skillet until browned on all or most sides.  Do not cook the meat all the way through.  Place in crockpot, and top with enchilada sauce, chiles and spices.  Stir, cover and cook on low about 4-5 hours.  Meat is done when it is falling apart.  Remove bay leaves.  You want your sauce to be almost gravy-thick at this point, but the meat juice has probably watered it down.  If your sauce is too thin to use as a topping, mix together 3 teaspoons of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a tiny bowl, then stir into crockpot.  It'll thicken up quickly.  Taste your sauce, add more spices or salt if necessary.

Assembling burritos:  scoop meat from crockpot using a mesh strainer, so the burritos will be meaty, not runny.  Fill each burrito with half a cup of meat (or beans and meat, or meat and cheese, or all three!) slightly fold in both sides, then roll up.  Place on baking sheet or baking dish, then smother with meat sauce.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese.  Place under broiler set on high for about 3 minutes, watching carefully the entire time until cheese is melted.  Serve with beans, rice, or additional sauce.

SPICY CHICKEN TACO PASTA

This meal was the result of cleaning out the pantry.  Half a box of pasta, a can of enchilada sauce, chicken broth, frozen chicken breasts, fajita seasoning, Ro-tel, sour cream, half a block of white cheddar and half a block of yellow.  We were craving both Mexican and comfort food.  This meal was the perfect combination of the two!  A co-worker gave me a packet of Lawry's Fajita Seasoning awhile back and I've been trying to think of a creative way to use it.  She swears by this stuff and orders it in bulk online, so I knew it would be delicious.

I seasoned the frozen chicken breasts with cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper then baked them.  While they were cooking, I boiled the pasta in all the liquid ingredients.  When the chicken was done, I shredded it and tossed it in the pasta along with the cheese and sour cream.  We like beans in southwestern pasta, but didn't have any whole beans.  I heated up a can of refried beans and debated whether to mix it into the pasta, or just use it as a base under the pasta in our individual bowls.  I went with the latter and it was definitely a winner.  Next time I make this I may purchase a rotisserie chicken so I can skip cooking the chicken altogether!  Plus, I am kind of a rotisserie chicken skin addict.

The Ro-tel and enchilada sauce were both spicy, so adjust according to your own preference.

Ingredients

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (precooked would save a step!)
Chili powder
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
8 ounces any small shape pasta
2 cups chicken broth
1 can enchilada sauce, 10 oz
1 packet fajita or taco seasoning
1 can Ro-tel (or petite diced tomatoes)
1-2 cups shredded cheddar (I used extra sharp yellow and white)
1 cup sour cream
1 can refried beans

Season chicken with cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes, or until fully cooked through, then shred.  If using cooked chicken, shred and set aside.  In large skillet with lid, combine broth, enchilada sauce, fajita seasoning and Rotel.  Stir until seasoning is completely dissolved, then stir in pasta.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer about 15 minutes, or until pasta is done.  Taste then season with salt and pepper as necessary.  Stir in cheese until melted, then stir in sour cream.  Serve over cooked refried beans.