Chicken enchiladas are pretty simple to make.  There are a bunch of different things you can throw in there, and let’s be honest…if it’s drenched in yummy sauce you can’t go wrong. 🙂

When Maya was 5 weeks old, she was diagnosed with a dairy and soy allergy.  Since I was breastfeeding…that meant no dairy or soy for me either :(.  Dairy isn’t so hard, but finding things that don’t have soy is REALLY HARD.  Making dinners was really hard (wait did I say that already?).  I had to get creative.  Did I mention I have two hungry teenage stepsons?  SO…I made this recipe just thinking of things that would taste good that didn’t have dairy and soy.

Maya is still what I’d call “dairy intollerant” (she gets really congested), but we have a little bit here and there and she does ok.  The entire recipe only has 1 cup of cottage cheese, and 1/2 a cup of shredded cheese.  Adds the perfect amount of creaminess to the enchiladas and a hint of cheese on top.

They are packed with low fat protein and taste delicious! 

Ingredients

• Bag of Tortillas.  I love these, and you could easily sub in any gluten free options.
• 7-8 chicken breasts (depending on size)  Basically each enchilada has almost a full chicken breast!
• Large jar or can of enchilada sauce.  I go back and forth between red and green.
• Small yellow onion
• Jar of diced chiles (they aren’t that spicy if you’re worried and add a great flavor and moisture to the mix)
• Can of refried beans (I like to use black bean, but use whatever!)
• 1 C low fat Cottage Cheese (I love the one that has Chive in it!) don’t use for dairy free
• 1/2 C Shredded cheese don’t use for dairy free
• 2 TBL of Olive Oil

Directions

• Start boiling your water for the chicken.  I have NO idea why I boil the chicken!  I saw a friend do it once, and then have done it ever since when making enchiladas!  It’s easier, doesn’t have any added fat from cooking it with oil, and it requires less attention-WIN.
• Add chicken and cook for 10-12 minutes (until they rise to the top)  They will cook more in the enchiladas, so you want to make sure you don’t overcook them.
• Put olive oil large a non stick pan.  Add onions and stir for about 5 min (or until they start to get soft).
• Once chicken is cooked, let it sit on a cutting board/plate/bowl.  You will want it to cool before you shred it (I’ve burned my fingers WAY too many times)  Oh, and note-if you have a dog…don’t let the chicken sit out on the counter.  Do I need to tell you what happened when I did that?? 😦
• Dump refried beans, chilis, cottage cheese (opt out for dairy free)  into the pan with the onions.  You can add a little bit of your enchilada sauce to the mixture if you aren’t using the cottage cheese to make it a little moister.  Start finger shredding the chicken into this mixture and stir.  (or do it all in a big bowl)  Maya loved helping stir it all together!
• Pour about 1/4 C of enchilada sauce into a 9×13 pan, so they don’t stick.
• Scoop about a cup of mixture into each tortilla, roll and place (seam side down) into 9×13 pan.  Repeat until all tortillas are filled or you run out of mixture.
• Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas and add cheese on top (opt out for dairy free)
• Bake at 350 for 20.  Garnish with avocado, some plain Greek Yogurt, salsa (or all three!)

Keeping it real…

I actually first wrote this post 2 and a half years ago, but hated the picture I took.  The kids were hangry haha.  SO, I never posted it.  I was super excited to find it in the archives after making it again for dinner on Monday!  This time I snapped a few slightly better rushed picture before we ate (oh, to have TIME!!), and had the post all ready to go-WIN!!

Here’s the first picture from 2.5 years ago with green sauce… 🙂Enjoy!!