Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

There are a number of creamy chicken enchilada recipes floating around the Internet. Having never made enchiladas before but having all the seemingly necessary ingredients in my pantry, I cobbled together my own recipe.

Before I go any further, I have to tell you Mr. Gooch was so impressed that I had made a dish with such heat and flavor. You see, when we first started dating, heat and/or spicy were not really in my repertoire. To be honest, I was pretty close to the queen of bland. My idea of spicy was using Italian dressing as a marinade on a salmon fillet. And any heat was to be avoided. Yeah, it was that bad. But Mr. Gooch began to rub off on me. Starting with the Barbacoa beef burritos from Chipotle and moving onto spicy marinades for various meats. Apparently, hanging out with my hubby has opened my food horizons. Of course, living within 1.5 miles of a Penzeys doesn't hurt either.

Now back to the recipe review, I was nervous since this was my first enchilada attempt but the results were very very good. So good that we both has second helpings. As written below, the heat in the mouth factor may be considered by some to be quite high. This was especially pronounced since we did not eat it with any rice. To lessen the heat, you can remove the seeds from the chilies before you mince them.

Creamy Chipotle Enchiladas
(Source: the depths of my brain and about 50 different recipes found scattered around the Internet)
Ingredients
2 large cooked and shredded chicken breasts (approximately 3 cups)
10 taco size tortillas
1 jar enchilada sauce
2 chipotle peppers, minced and 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from a can
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 red onion chopped fine
1 green pepper chipped fine
1 Tablespoon olive oil
8 oz low fat cream cheese, cubed

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil and sweat onions and green peppers.
Add adobo sauce and chipotle peppers.
Saute for another 3-5 minutes.
Add cubed cream cheese.
Stirring frequently until melted.
Add shredded chicken.
Mix thoroughly and remove from heat.
Fill tortillas with chicken mixture, roll and place seam side down in a 9x13 nonstick pan. (I was able to fit them in a 2 x 5 configuration.)
Once pan is filled, cover with enchilada sauce.
Sprinkle cheese on top of sauce.
Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes.
Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes.
Let sit covered for 10 minutes before serving.

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