Chicken Enchiladas Verdes

San Antonio, Texas is one of my favorite places to visit....and now my beautiful daughter, Shelby, lives there!  The Tex-Mex food I've had there is wonderful!  A few years ago I had an opportunity to visit on a company trip and I took a cooking class at Aldacos Sunset Station with Blanca Aldaco, the high energy owner and chef.  The best part was we got to eat the same dish we were learning how to cook, the Chicken Enchiladas Verdes.  Oh yea.....she also taught us how she makes Margaritas....from scratch!

Wanna know how I made them?  Well, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs....I just like the texture and moistness of the thighs versus the chicken breats.  But the quick/easy way is to buy a rotisserie chicken and use that!  Ummmm......

First you salt and pepper the breasts, place on a baking sheet......

......baked them at 350 degrees until they were golden brown......

...then I shredded the meat using two forks.

While the chicken was baking, I made the verde sauce.  A verde sauce is made with tomatillos....

Tomatillos are actually a fruit, but you can find them in the tomato section in the produce department.  It is surrounded by a paper-like husk, which is easy to remove.  But you will notice a stick feel to the skin.....just rinse them under running water....comes right off.

Put the tomatillos (about a pound), one quartered onion, 4 or 5 garlic cloves, 1 bell pepper, quartered, a jalepeno or serano pepper, diced, salt to taste and 1/2 bunch cilantro (optional) into water.  Note:  I didn't have any peppers, so I used a small can of diced green chiles, which I added after cooking everything else.

Cook them until they are tender.....

.......and set them aside to cool.  Once they have cooled, put them in a blender or food processor....

and blend until smooth.  At this point, I added just a little cumin, since I didn't have any cilantro on hand.  Set the sauce aside and start assembling your enchiladas.  Just put a bit of the shredded chicken into the tortilla (I use the flour tortillas).

Place them side by side in the casserole dish.

The recipe actually calls for covering them with the sauce, but I think it tends to make them a little more soggy than I prefer, so I cover them with the cheese first....

....then I covered them with the sauce....

...then I baked it at 350 degrees until they were browned and bubbly....

They were delicious.....but no way are they better than the ones I had at Aldacos. 

\ It's now a tradition.....we go there everytime I visit San Antonio now.  Now it's just as much for the unbelievable pear cactus margarita....

.....and the tres leches cake......

....which we dove into before I could even think to take a picture!

So if you're ever in San Antonio, make sure you venture off the Riverwalk just long enough to go to Aldacos Sunset Station to try the chicken enchiladas, the cactus pear margarita and the tres leches cake......or make them yourself!  They're fun to make and more fun to eat!