New Mexico Night

So we were bad... very bad! We had New Mexico night last night and I made sopapillas... ooo a very naughty little treat. They came out so yummy too!!! I also made green chile chicken enchiladas. I'll post both recipes below, the sopapillas take a little experience with oil temperature so don't be disappointed if they don't come out too fluffy the first time you try it.

New Mexico Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb chicken, cubed
2. 1-2 Tbls. extra virgin olive oil
3. 4 C. grated cheddar
4. Small package of corn tortillas (not flour)
5. 13 oz container of Bueno green chile **
6. 1 can cream of chicken soup
7. 1/2 C. skim milk
8. 1 tsp. chopped garlic
9. 1/4 tsp. chili powder
10. 1/4 tsp. cumin
11. 1/8 tsp. black pepper
12. 1/8 tsp. ground red pepper (optional)
    
13. 2 Tbls. chopped onion

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Saute chicken in large pan with extra virgin olive oil until cooked.
3. Brown garlic and onion in pan with chicken, add green chile, chili powder, cumin, black pepper and red pepper to pan. Stir.
   
4. Add cream of chicken soup and milk to pan, simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Layer corn tortillas on bottom of 13 x 9" pan, spoon half of chicken mixture onto tortillas, sprinkle 2 C. cheddar on top of chicken. Layer again with tortillas, remaining chicken and cheddar.
   
6. Bake in oven for 20 - 25 minutes until cheese is bubbly.
7. Serve with sour cream if desired.

** If you can't find already made roasted green chile you can roast it yourself, here is a recipe I recommend. Roasting Anaheim Peppers. It's easy just time consuming, you can do this ahead of time and keep it packaged in the freezer; I usually use about 5 peppers for this recipe.

Sopapillas

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 C. flour
2. 2 tsp. baking powder
3. 3/4 tsp. salt
4. 2 Tbls. vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2" pieces
5. 1/2 C. warm water
6. 1 qt. of vegetable oil, for frying
   

Directions:

1. Preheat oil in tall pan on med - high.
   
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl.
3. Cut vegetable shorting into flour mixture until crumbly.
4. Mix in warm water with blender until dough forms, let dough rest for 15 minutes.
   
5. Roll out (dough should be the thickness of a hard cover book about 1/2 cm, not to thick, not too thin.)
6. Cut dough into squares, about 3 x 4".
7. Fry two pieces at a time in very hot oil (med-high setting - oil should boil when dough is placed in pan.)
   
8. Turn sopapillas often until golden, remove and drain on toweling.
9. Serve with honey.
   

**If the sopapillas aren't puffing up like balloons your oil is not hot enough, see photo below.