San Antonio Style Goat Cheese Enchiladas

This recipe is courtesy of the Food Network, more specifically, Grill Master Bobby Flay. This is easily better than enchiladas that you would find in any local Tex-Mex establishment, tooting the horn of Sir Flay for this creation. Prep time for this meal is about 30 - 45 minutes and works even better when you have an extra set of hands to help, best suited for a weekend date night, girls night or roommate dinner. There are a lot of steps that could take more time if prepared solo. I adapted the original recipe only slightly, having followed it exactly once before but then changed it a bit this second time around.

Grocery List:
- Flour or Corn tortillas (recipe called for corn tortillas, we used flour the first time, corn this second time - I recommend the flour over corn, simply because the flour tortillas are more flexible and don't break apart, as the corn did.)

- 8 ounces of Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
- 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro, garnish
- Sour cream, garnish
- Chopped green onions, garnish

- 1 lb of shredded chicken (we use shredded chicken breast from the deli)

For Red Chili-Tomato Sauce
- 2 Ancho Chilies
- Vegetable Oil
- 1 Large Red Onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon of Mexican oregano
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 can of peeled and cut plum tomatoes
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
- Salt and pepper to taste

Goat Cheese Filling
- 1 lb of goat cheese
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 lime, cut and squeezed for 2 tablespoons of juice
- 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

Additional needs:

1 skillet

1 small sauce pan

Blender or Large Food Processor

Small food processor

1 8x12 glass oven-safe baking dish

Medium size mixing bowl

Non-stick spray

*Note: For this recipe, we opted to gather the pre-chopped materials at Central Market to help save on prep time. If you could get peeled garlic (to just throw in the food processor), chopped onion and chopped red onion, that would be beneficial. If you would like to use the dried versions of the spices, it will not ruin the recipe, but for the full-bodied fresh taste, I would get the "plant version" of the oregano, cilantro and green onion.

Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees and spray your baking dish with non-stick spray. Start with making the Red-Chili Tomato Sauce, as it is the most time consuming process.

Bring two cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add chilies, remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes - reserve 1/4 cup of the water. Remove stems and seeds. We used a blender for this next part, since my food processor is a small. Place the chilies in your large chopping device along with the water and puree until smooth. Add the canned tomatoes and blend together.


Boiling the peppers



Cut peppers in the Blender


Blending the peppers with the reserved water


Adding the tomatoes to the pureed peppers



Heat about 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a medium skillet, over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add cumin and oregano, cook for 1 minute. Transfer this into a medium sauce pan, add chili-tomato puree and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Next add the wine and stock, cook for 25-20 minutes or until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep this on the stove on low heat.


Sauteing the red onion, garlic and cumin

Transferred into a pot - adding the stock, white wine and chili-tomato puree

Now for the goat cheese filling. If you have a smaller food processor, now would be a great time to use it. However, the first time we made this, I did not have one yet and was able to combine all of these ingredients into a mixing bowl for the same end result. Use your mixing method at this time by adding the goat cheese, 3 cloves of garlic (pre-chopped if mixing by hand, whole if in food processor), the parmesan cheese and fresh squeezed lime juice. Blend it all together until creamy and smooth. Remove from food processor to a mixing bowl, then fold in the cilantro.


All ingredients in food processor to be blended


Blended and beautiful!


Folding in cilantro

At this time, take your red chili sauce and pour about 1 - 1 1/2 cups in the baking dish. Next, dip your tortillas in the sauce to coat them for flavor. Add about two spoons worth to the tortilla, spread and top with the shredded chicken. Roll tightly and place, seem side down, in the baking dish. Repeat process until you run out of room - we were able to fill 8 rolled tortillas. Pour the sauce over your tortillas, then top with the cheese.


1- 1 1/2 cup of sauce spread in the baking dish


Coating the tortilla


Spreading the goat cheese blend in the tortilla


After adding the shredded chicken, rolling tortilla


The rolled tortillas


Covered in sauce and cheese

Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool and then indulge! Add the chopped green onions, cilantro and sour cream to garnish. This dish is great with homemade refried beans or mexican rice.


Hot out of the oven!

Finished product! As noted above, the corn tortillas break apart after cooking, so this turned into more of a casserole of sorts when trying to scoop it out. We served with a refried bean recipe that will be added to the blog as well.