Chicken Enchiladas

Mexican food is unfortunately scarce in Israel.  Thus, every month or so my flatmates and I would attempt to reproduce some of those flavors on our own.  My first real experimentation with Chicken Enchiladas began with one of those flatmates (and the blog with that recipe can be found here) and it is at the prompting of a different flatmate that I post my current recipe (or at least a rough estimate of it) now.  It varies a little every time I make it, so I'll try to give the basic idea and put in a few options you can try.

To assemble these enchiladas you will want a number of ingredients on hand.  Most of these ingredients can be bought in the States, but often have to be made by hand in Israel.  Depending on which path you take, enchiladas can be an all-day undertaking or about an hour long task.  Either way, you will need:
Tortillas (about 10 per pan, depending on how many pans you want to make...  I usually use flour tortillas, but corn can be used too)
Black Beans (cooked or from a can...Or if you want you can use a different kind of bean or leave them out completely)
Salsa
Rice (cooked - this can probably be started at about the same time you start the sauce or done in advance)
Shredded Cheese (In Israel we used mostly emek, I think, sort of a white cheese, similar to Monterey Jack in texture.  A mixture of white and yellow (cheddar) cheeses is probably ideal, but whatever you prefer).  

Also, for toppings to have on hand I recommend:
Guacamole (optional, but tasty)
Sour Cream
Olives (in Israel we use the sliced green olives...surprisingly tasty)
Cilantro
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Extra Cheese

Ok, on to the actual recipe
Well, one more comment first.  I tend to like to make way more than I will need for one meal because if I'm going to do that much work, I might as well do just a little more work and eat twice as much.  They freeze well, so you can have a fast meal later.  I will try to estimate amounts I would use for one pan and encourage you to double it. :)

You will need:
1 medium onion, chopped
3-6 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste), minced
Olive oil or butter

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 Tbsp chili powder (or paprika if chili powder is unavailable)

1/2 Tbsp cumin

2 Tbsp flour
2 c. milk

1/2 c. sour cream
1-2 cans green chilies (depending on taste - we had to do without these in Israel, but they add some zing)

3 Chicken breasts (or other chicken parts...cooked and cut or shredded into bite sized pieces)
Salt
Pepper

*Please note that all of these ingredient amounts are approximate.  Feel free to vary depending on what you like and what feels good to you.

In a large frying pan, sauté the onions and garlic with the oil.  If you have raw chicken it can be thrown in and cooked with the onions at this time, though there are also good reasons for cooking it separately and throwing it into the sauce later.  Whatever.  When the onions and garlic have sauted for a while, add the chopped pepper and the spices..  When the pepper is starting to get tender stir in the flour until it is incorporated with the oil.  Add the milk and stir over medium heat until the sauce thickens.  If the sauce is too thick, add more milk.  If the sauce is too thin, you can sift in some flour, stirring quickly to try to avoid lumps.  Add the sour cream and green chilies at this time.

Before adding the chicken, set aside some of the sauce (about a cup) for later use.  (If the chicken is already in the sauce, you can  still reserve a cup or so, and try to take out most of the big chunks of chicken.)  Add the chicken to the rest of the sauce.  Taste the sauce and add salt, pepper, and other spices as needed and desired.

Time to assemble the enchiladas!*
1. Take a tortilla and put a couple spoonfuls of the chicken and sauce mixture in (more or less depending on the size of tortillas and how full you want them).
2. Place a spoonful or two of rice on top of the chicken mixture.
3. Place a spoonful or two of black beans on top of the rice.
4. Sprinkle with cheese.
5. Wrap up tortilla and place in a greased pan (probably the 13"x9" or 12"x8" size, or something similar)
6. Repeat until you run out of pan space or ingredients.  Hopefully that will occur at roughly the same time.
7. Spread your reserved sauce over the top of the assembled enchiladas in the pan.
8. Sprinkle the whole pan with cheese.
9.  Bake at about 400F until the cheese gets bubbly and brown on top...maybe about 20-30 minutes?

Serve with sour cream and salsa (and whatever other toppings you want).

*Other assembly methods can be used.  Ingredients can be layered in the pan, like lasagna, if desired.  (Layer of sauce, layer of tortillas, layer of rice and beans, layer of cheese, repeat...)

** If you are in a hurry and don't have time to make the sauce yourself, cream of chicken soup mixed with green chilies and sour cream works pretty well.

Pita Bread

In Israel, the challenge was to make "American" food (or "Mexican" food, as the case may be) with available ingredients and equipment.  Here, the challenge is to make Israeli or Mediterranean food with similar limitations.

In Israel, pita and hummus (and various veggies) quickly became a staple in my diet.  Here, both pita and  hummus can be purchased, but, like buying tortillas in Israel, the price is prohibitive and the product quality is usually lacking.  I did buy some hummus the other day (and it turned out to be decent, if not quite excellent) and I needed some pita to accompany it.  Store-bought pita here is simply not acceptable, so I made my own.

I have made pita quite a few times before, using a few different recipes, but generally with similar results.  They're not quite like the pitas that can be purchased all over Israel, but they're still tasty.  Basically, I think that just about any fairly generic bread recipe can be made into pita (instead of loaves).  For anyone out there who might want more specific directions, I'll try to reproduce what I did today.

1 c. warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar

Mix these together and let sit for a while for the yeast to start foaming.  Then add:
1 c. white flour

Mix in and let sit another 15 minutes or so.  Letting it sit a really long time (like over night) would probably improve the flavor, but it isn't necessary.

Add:
1.5 c. warm water
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. salt
3 c. white flour
4 c. wheat flour

Mix together, adding more flour or more water, depending on what is needed to create a dough that is easy to handle - not too sticky.  Kneed.  Let it sit and rise until doubled.

Preheat oven to 450F and put a pizza stone or something similar in to warm up with the oven.  (I ended up using an aluminum cookie sheet turned upside down.  Not ideal, but it works.)

Punch down and divide into 16 roughly equal balls of dough.  Roll out into 6-8" diameter circles.  (If they aren't prefect circles, don't worry.  They'll still taste good, and you'll get better with practice.)  Let rise for a while, maybe 15-20 minutes or so. Some will have to rise longer as you'll only be able to cook a couple at a time.  You'll probably want to use flour or cornmeal to keep them from sticking as you'll want to be able to pick them up easily.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as will fit on your baking surface (I could fit 2 at a time).

Starting to poof up in the oven.

They will need to cook for about 4-5 minutes.  (Unless you make them bigger and fatter...then they need longer, maybe 10 minutes.)  They should poof up in the oven, forming the pocket.

Fully poofed pocket.

Remove the pockets from the oven (leaving the pan in there to be ready for the next batch).  Lean on each other as they cool.  Be careful if you try to deflate them - the steam inside is quite warm.  Once they were deflated and cooled, mine had a diameter of about 6 inches and were about half an inch thick.  

Finished product.

I ate them for lunch with my family - I put falafel balls in the pita with various veggies, hummus, and cheese.  My dad used similar ingredients but with roast beef instead of falafel.  My mom put peanut butter and bananas in hers. Tonight we used them to make individual portion pizzas.  They're very versatile.  

If you don't eat them all right away they can be frozen and re-heated in a toaster.