Enchiladas

Most people make enchiladas with a canned sauce or with a white sauce (usually a Cream of something soup base).  My mom made up this sauce recipe and I don't think it can be beat.  I just love it!  She uses all cheese as a filling, but we like to do a chicken and cheese combo.

Enchiladas
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 Tbsp taco seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cups sour cream
1 pound shredded colby jack cheese
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
10 flour tortillas

In a sauce pan, cook oil and flour until bubbly.  Add water and all other ingredients, cook until it comes to a boil.  It should thicken slightly.  Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes if you have time.

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine shredded cheese, cream cheese, shredded chicken and 1 cup sauce for filling.  Cover bottom of 9x13 pan with sauce.  Put some sauce on a large plate, lay tortilla in sauce then place some filling mixture on tortilla.  Roll it up and place in 9x13.  Repeat until you use all filling and tortillas.  Pour sauce over enchiladas and top with cheese.

Cover pan with foil, bake for 20 minutes.

When I cook my chicken I usually just put it on my stove top in a large frying pan with a little water.  I salt and pepper it and break it into smaller pieces as it cooks.  It takes a while, but if you know in advance that you'll be using it over several meals, cook it all at once.  That's what I did and it made putting my enchiladas together easy peasy.

If you don't feel like rolling up a bunch of tortillas, you can easily make these into an Enchilada Lasagna. I cut my tortillas into strips and layers them with sauce and filling.  Usually, I don't mix all the filling ingredients if I do it this way.  I do a layer of sauce, tortillas, cream cheese/cheese, and then chicken.  Repeating until its all used up.  Its so good.