Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas with Greek Yogurt
The internet is a great place to peruse recipes and get new ideas for healthifying your meals. I think I made that word up. I like comfort food. I like cheese, cream, sugar, butter, bacon, chocolate and all things bread. Unfortunately, eating like that all the time would mean big trouble. So I sometimes like to find ways to lighten up those calorie laden foods, even if it’s just a touch, so that we can enjoy them more often.
There are all kinds of tricks and substitutions people come up with for lightening up old favorites. Sometimes you find something that sounds great, almost too good to be true…which a lot of the time means it is and the final product is not what you’d hoped it would be. I once found a recipe for scalloped potatoes that used skim milk. Skim milk! No cream! And it claimed to be the same creamy potato dish without all the fat. They lied. I ended up throwing the majority of it away. So, I was worried about these enchiladas. I love the idea of using non-fat greek yogurt instead of sour cream or a cream sauce, but wasn’t sure if it was going to work out. But I’ve seen lots of recipes that make the substitution, so I gave it a try. Thankfully this was one of those times that taking a chance worked out and we had a delicious dinner with a little less guilt than usually comes with a plateful of enchiladas.
The original recipe came from Meals and Moves, a blog I hadn’t come across until yesterday. I changed very little, and would make just a couple additional changes when I make these again. I used corn tortillas, because I believe there is no other way to make enchiladas. I added cilantro, garlic, jalapeno and just a bit more cheese to the filling. Next time I might add chopped green bell pepper to the veggies, maybe a little more chicken and the whole jalapeno, seeded for the spice sensitive (like myself these days). But feel free to go for it with the seeds. I’ll meet back up with you in September when I can handle it without a serious case of heartburn. Too much information? Sorry.
If you’re looking for a good side dish to serve with these enchiladas or any Tex-Mex meal, try this black bean and corn salad from Whole Foods. It also makes for a good salsa and can be adapted to fit your tastes. I like to add chopped tomatoes.
Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas with Greek Yogurt
Ingredients
- 10 corn tortillas
- 6-8 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 jalapeno, diced small
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 can chopped green chiles (7-8 ounces total)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 1 1/2 cups non fat Greek yogurt (a little more for topping)
- 1 cup salsa verde
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2-1 cup shredded cheese (montery jack, colby jack, etc.)
- 1/2-3/4 cup chopped cilantro (and a little extra for garnish)
Directions
- Heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the green onions and the jalapeno and saute for 3-4 minutes. Then add in the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add the green chiles, cumin and a dash of salt and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Mix the chicken into the warm vegetables and set aside.
- Combine the yogurt, salsa verde and cilantro in a bowl. Add all but 1 cup of the yogurt mixture into the chicken mixture. Add 1/4-1/2 cup of cheese to the chicken and mix to combine.
- Heat corn tortillas in 2 batches in the microwave, wrapped in slightly damp paper towels for about 30 seconds or until they are pliable.
- Coat a 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Fill the center of a tortilla with about 1/3 cup of filling, roll up and lay seam side down in the pan. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Some of your tortillas may crack, but it’s not a big deal. (If you have extra space, extra tortillas and extra filling, cram another enchilada or 2 into the pan.)
- Spread remaining yogurt sauce over the enchiladas and then sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 cup of cheese.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until cheese is melted and edges have started to brown.
- Garnish with a little yogurt and chopped cilantro.