Chicken Enchiladas and Enchilada Sauce Recipe

It used to be that I stocked cans of tomato sauce in my cupboard for making pizza sauce and enchilada sauce.  But then I bought Thrive Tomato Powder.  It only takes a moment to turn the powder into sauce.  I've tried several different recipes but this week's trial seems to be a winner.  I used this recipe from Healthy Family Cookin to get started.

I grabbed my Thrive Tomato Powder and got to work.

 Adapting the original recipe just a bit, I added salt, Thrive dehydrated onions, and garlic powder to my tomato powder. 

After boiling the water, I added it to my tomato powder mixture.  Next up, convert this tomato sauce to enchilada sauce.

For that I turned to this enchilada sauce recipe I've used for years but I changed it up some (replaced the salt and garlic with garlic salt, and reduced the chili powder to 1 T per my child's complaint that it's been too spicy).

Now let's turn it into enchiladas.  I've used this recipe for years. I'm often asked "what should I buy?" by those just getting started.  My favorite advice is to pick a family favorite recipe and convert it to Thrive ingredients, then purchase those items.  This is one of those recipes for me.  And I have purchased the ingredients - I just didn't use them this time. 

This day, I chopped up leftover chicken breast, added 1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute (made from white bean flour), a can of Rotel and regular cheddar cheese.  Next, I poured in 1/2 of my enchilada sauce.  To convert, simply use rehydrated Thrive Freeze Dried chopped chicken and rehydrated Thrive Freeze Dried Cheddar Cheese (or go crazy and use both the cheddar and Thrive Freeze Dried Monterey Jack!).

 Spoon into flour tortillas, roll them up and lay down in a sprayed 9x13 pan.

Once you've used up all the "enchilada goop" (we use fancy words like that at our house), cover the enchiladas with the remaining enchilada sauce and as much cheese as you like (we like a lot).  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Here are the recipes for you:

Tomato Sauce

(original recipe from Healthy Family Cookin')

¼ Cup + 2 Tbsp. Thrive Tomato Powder

1/8 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. Thrive Chopped Onions

¼ tsp. garlic powder

¾ Cup + 2 Tbsp. water, boiling

In a small bowl combine the tomato powder, salt, onions and garlic powder. Pour hot water over powder mixture and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Makes the equivalent of 8 oz of tomato sauce.

Enchilada Sauce 

2 T vegetable oil
2 T flour

1 T chili powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1 recipe tomato sauce (above)
2 c water
1 t garlic salt

Heat oil in 2 qt saucepan; stir in flour and chili powder.  Cook for 1 minute.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 min. 

 (converted and changed from recipe I found here years ago)

 Chicken Enchiladas

1 pkg flour tortillas (soft taco or burrito size - your preference or what's on sale)
1 can cream of chicken soup or 1 recipe of substitute
8 oz shredded cheddar or mexican blend cheese (Thrive Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese)
1 can Ro-Tel (original works but the Mexican version with cilantro and lime is best)
2 cups leftover chicken or rehydrated Thrive Chopped Chicken
 Enchilada Sauce (recipe above)
 

Combine chicken, soup, Ro-Tel, 3/4 of the cheese and 1/4-1/2 of the enchilada sauce.

Spray bottom of 9x13 pan.

Put 2-3 large spoonfuls  into each tortilla.  Wrap tortilla around filling and place seam side down in 9x13 pan.  Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and cover with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Chicken Azteca Recipe

I love getting tried and true recipes from my friends!  A few years ago, a friend gave me this recipe for Chicken Azteca.  I tried it and loved it, my non-bean eating family did not, but they were willing to keep it on the menu if I didn't make it often.  We were feeding the missionaries from our church the other day for dinner and I decided to pull the Chicken Azteca recipe out and make it using THRIVE FD Sweet Corn and THRIVE Instant Black Beans.  It turned out great!

Because I was running out the door, I didn't have time to reconstitute the corn and black beans and threw them into the crockpot dry and added in 3 cups of water.  When it came time to serve dinner, I drained some of the liquid out of the mixture and wish I hadn't.  So that will be different the next time I make this recipe.  I also had some extra chicken breast that I added and had to pull out before shredding it as it was too much chicken, although no one else thought there was too much chicken.  My husband did say there were too many beans.  But since he didn't pick any out of his dinner, that means there really weren't.  Adjust your quantities of Beans to match your family's preference.

Chicken Azteca

2 cups THRIVE FD Sweet Corn

1 1/2 cup THRIVE Instant Black Beans

3 cups water

1 cup salsa

1 clove garlic or 1/8 tsp garlic granules/powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

4 boneless skinless chicken breast or 2 cups THRIVE FD Chopped Chicken, reconstituted

1 pkg cream cheese, cubed

Hot Cooked Rice

Shredded Cheddar or THRIVE FD Cheddar Cheese, reconstituted

Combine corn, beans, 1/2 cup salsa, garlic, cumin, and 3 cups water in slow cooker.  Arrange chicken over top; pour remaining salsa over chicken.  Cover; cook on High 2-3 hours or on low 4-6 hours.

If using fresh chicken breast, remove chicken and cut into bite-size pieces; return chicken to slow cooker.

Add cream cheese and stir.  Cook on High until cream cheese melts and blends into sauce.

Serve over rice.  Top with cheddar cheese.

Day 2

This recipe made a lot!  So even though the missionaries were eating with us, I still had a ton of leftovers.  I mentioned it at the end of our meal on Day 1 that I thought it would be good wrapped in a tortilla. Everyone seemed to agree so the next day, that's what I had for lunch.  To make it more like a burrito, I chopped up a fresh tomato and added some sour cream.  It was delicious (and I ate it again the next day).  I think it would be even better with some fresh pico de gallo.  And if you notice the white cream on my tortilla, that's sour cream.  That is my trick for keeping burritos and tacos together - take a small dab of sour cream and put it where the tortilla overlaps.  Super easy and makes setting your food down to help a child without having your dinner fall apart so much easier!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

So when I shared about THRIVE Instant Black Beans saving my soup last week, this is the recipe it was saving - Chicken Tortilla Soup.  This originally came from my friend Nancy but for a much larger crowd so I had to make it smaller, and then adjust it to match my family.  And now I've adjusted it for THRIVE.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4 cups chicken broth (make from 4 tsp. THRIVE Chicken Bouillon and 4 cups water)
2-3 cans cream of chicken soup (or substitute recipe using white bean flour & THRIVE Chicken Bouillon)
1/2 jar salsa
1/2 - 1 cup of THRIVE Sweet Corn (FD)
1/2-1 cup THRIVE Instant Black Beans
3 cups THRIVE Chopped Chicken (FD)

Rehydrate Chicken in water for 10 minutes.  While chicken is rehydrating, pour broth into large pot.  Add cream of chicken and stir.  Bring to a boil.  Add salsa.  Stir in corn and black beans, then add chicken.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat.  Simmer until ready to serve.

For using with non-THRIVE foods, here are the amounts:
1/2 can corn
1/2 can black beans or 1/3 c dry beans (= 3/4 cups cooked)
3 cups shredded chicken

Next time I make this soup, I will take pictures and update this post.