Enchiladas de Carne

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pork carne enchiladaSo we made the Mexican Carne yesterday for my wife’s sister’s family, who is in town visiting.  But we made way too much.  Like, several pounds too much.  And I love the stuff, so it is not a problem to eat it all week, except they have plans for the rest of the meals for the week.  And I do not dare upset the plans of the sisters, lest I not get to eat what they come up with.

So a new plan was needed.  And my beautiful wife came up with the idea of a freezer meal.  That’s where you make the entire dish, put it in a disposable oven container, and put it in the deep freeze.  Sometime in the next couple of months, you then pull it out, put it in the oven, and voila!  You have a ready to eat meal that is better than a TV dinner.  only one question remained: what could we make out of the Mexican Carne that would freeze well, and heat well?

The answer tonight was Enchiladas!

So off the the wonderful internet to find a good enchilada sauce.  And we found one.  it is really good.  Check out the post over at Add a Pinch.

Of course I could not leave well enough alone.  So I adjusted it to better work with the pork version of the Mexican Carne.  Meaning I cut some of the sugar she has in there, and only used half the Chicken stock (and yes, you can use water if you don’t have stick on hand).

 

Start by making a base similar to a French Roux, only thinner.  Combine the oil and flour in the pan, and put it on low to medium heat.  Whisk the entire time (about two minutes), to keep from burning, and to cook the flour a little bit (since nobody likes the taste of raw flour).  Once it no longer smells like flour, you can lower the heat and add the crushed tomatoes, spices, and whatever else is on the list.  Sauce will thicken fairly quickly when stirred together with the roux.

enchilada sauce Stir it together and set to a low simmer for ten to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

enchilada sauceTaste and adjust the seasoning as needed.

pork carne enchiladaIt really is quite tasty.

If you are making it into a freezer meal like we did, simply roll up the Mexican Carne in flour tortillas, line them side by side in a disposable pan, smother them in the Enchilada Sauce, and tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil.  Label it with a permanent marker, and put it in the deep freezer.  Whenever you choose to use it in the future, put it into a 350 degree oven for an hour, then check it.  If the center of the middle ones isn’t heated through, put it back in the oven until it is.

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Enchilada Sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Truly Good Enchilada Sauce, adapted from http://addapinch.com/cooking/enchilada-sauce-recipe/
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons chili powder
  • ½ cup chicken stock, or water
  • 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon packed brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Mix together vegetable oil and flour in a medium saucepan. Put over medium heat and whisk constantly for two minutes, until you no longer smell raw flour.
  2. Turn down heat and add crushed tomatoes, spices, and the remaining ingredients. Stir together.
  3. cook on a low simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  4. Taste and adjust spices as needed.

 

 

Mexican Carne

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carneA few years ago, a friend of ours told us that her mother was visiting from southern Mexico.  Would it be OK if she came over to visit and bring her mother?  Would it be OK if she cooked at our house?  Would it be OK to mame some authentic Mexican Carne?

Well, yeah.  Definitely.

As a bit of background, I spent a few years in South America when I was younger.  I learned Spanish, at least the Uruguay version of Spanish, and I learned some Latino Culture.  Not all of it, of course; I was 20, so of course I wasn’t the best for studying and learning.  But I did learn to speak the language.

Fast forward 20 years, and we had a very pleasant lady visiting us, who spoke very little English.  And my wife, who spoke very little Spanish.  And my habit of chatting and shooting the breeze pulling me off on my own discussions, rather than work as translator.  My wife had a difficult time of it, and it was a long night, but she really enjoyed the company and we watched, and asked questions, and we learned.  Carne.  Simple, delicious, and always a hit.

We use some of the meat from the Pulled Pork, but you can use whatever shredded meat you have, beef, pork, and probably chicken, though I haven’t tried that.  If you don’t have the time to smoke the pulled pork, you can put a pork shoulder or a beef roast into a crock pot with water, stock, veggies, V-8 juice, or whatever you have.  Cook it on low overnight, take it out of the pot and shred it with a couple of forks.

Start by chopping the vegetables.  We used three onions, two green peppers, and one Jalapeno.  Ok, it’s best with a jalapeno, but the store was out, so the pictures have a small red pepper in them, I don’t remember which kind; Red Fresno, maybe.  It’s better with the jalapeno.  Also, feel free to use two or three of them if you like spice; one will add flavor and almost no spice; three may be too much for a general audience.

onion and peppersAdd oil to to a large saute pan.  Vegetable oil works well here.  I knew we were making Mexican Carne, so I kept some of the oil from the Pulled Pork.

pulled pork greaseAdd the peppers. And onions.

saute peppersadd onions

And saute them until they soften a little.

saute onions and peppersAdd the shredded meat, and mix it in.

add pulled porkmexican carne stir together

Then chop the tomatoes and add them.

IMG_1090mexican carne before simmer

Now you want to add a little more liquid, water or stock, etc.  Then simmer the entire thing, stirring occasionally, until it’s texture changes.  Usually takes about 30-40 minutes, depending on how hot the simmer and how full the pan.

carne

And that is what it looks like.  The photo doesn’t do it justice.  It changes from a bunch of stuff in a pan to a meaty goodness.  Be patient; you’ll know when it gets there.  Go ahead and taste it.  If you didn’t use the Pulled Pork or a stock, etc, when making the meat, and didn’t season the meat before this, the Mexican Carne will need salt and pepper added here.  But taste it first, don’t over salt.

Serving Suggestions.  Roll it into a tortilla.  Add your favorite things like Queso Fresco, lettuce, sour cream, etc.  Put it on a salad.  Or hang over the kitchen sink and snarf it before the kinds show up to eat it all; and yeah, that rarely happens if you have more than one kid.

 

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Mexican Carne
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Authentic Mexican Carne from Southern Mexico.
Ingredients
  • 3 medium onions, chopped
  • 2 green peppers, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2-3 pounds shredded meat, beef, pork, or chicken
  • 4 tomatoes, diced
Instructions
  1. Saute onion, green peppers, and jalapeno pepper in oil until softened, about five minutes
  2. stir in shredded meat, warm through
  3. stir in diced tomatoes
  4. simmer until everything changed texture and blends, 30-40 minutes. If it starts to dry, add some liquid that the meat was cooked in if available, or water
  5. Add salt and pepper as needed.

 

Brine your Chicken

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This post isn’t about a specific recipe, per se.  It is about a technique for making your chicken turn out awesome.  Every time.  And it’s simple to do:  brine your chicken.

Got your attention?

Basically, you make a brine out of water, salt, and sugar (salt water is called a brine, but the sugar brings it home).  Then you put the chicken in the brine.  but all that into the fridge, and wait.  Take it out, drain the brine, cook the chicken.

It’s that easy.  It doesn’t matter if it’s thighs, breasts, backs, or wings.  And it doesn’t matter if you are pan searing, grilling, baking, microwaving, smoking, of just taking a blow torch to it.  The chicken will turn out better.  Pork chops will, too (although they take longer in the brine), but this post is about chicken.

The issue I have with cooking chicken (and pork, too, sometimes) is that you have about five seconds of perfectly cooked chicken.  Not undercooked where you will kill someone, and not overcooked where it turns into dry tasteless junk.  If you don’t take it off at just the right time, you end up with bad food.  When you brine the chicken, it adds salt and flavor to the chicken, but it also adds water.  You end up with chicken that now has about a minute, sometimes more, of perfectly cooked, not over dry, amazing food.  A little bit of planning, and everyone will know what a great cook you are.

OK, the rules.

 

1 gallon water.

1 cup salt.

1/2 cup sugar.

 

Mix that all together until the salt and sugar is dissolved.  Put in the chicken.  Put it in the fridge.  If it is a normal chicken breast, give it 45 minutes.  If it is one of those monster chicken breasts from Costco, give it an hour and a half. You know the ones, four inches wide, six inches long.  They are wonderful, but size makes a difference about how long it is in the brine.  (and yes, the pork chops will be longer, an hour for a normal 1/2 inch thick chop, and up to four hours for that monster one inch thick chop at Costco).

Oh, and if you want to just leave it over night, just half the salt and sugar, and you should be fine.

And if you don’t need that much brine, just keep the ratios.  Half gallon water, half cup salt, quarter cup sugar.  It’s that simple.

Now go!  Brine some chicken.