Recipe to use up those extra tortillas you may have around!

When I was sifting through the freezer to figure out what we needed from the market, I came across a bag of corn tortillas that I had forgotten about. When I was menu planning for the week, I made sure to keep an eye out for any recipes that would have used a good amount of them. I came across a few that used maybe 4 or 6, but then I found a recipe that called for 12 - Chicken Chilaquiles!

I was excited to try this recipe as I wanted to see how it compared to the version I had out at Border Grill when we took a trip to Vegas this past April. One of the ingredients called for is a can of tomatillos - I actually had a fairly hard time finding these at one of our markets. I finally came across them at a local Latin market since we came up empty at the grocery stores. If you can find them, great... if you can't and would still like to make the recipe, I am sure you could use salsa verde instead - you will probably need roughly a cup and quarters worth.

This lighter take on chilaquiles has a filling made from a mixture of tender shredded chicken, green onions, zesty Monterey Jack cheese flecked with jalapeños, Parmesan cheese and chili powder for a bit of a smoky background. The sauce to coat the tortillas is a pureed mixture of tomatillos, milk, cilantro and mild green chiles. This dish is not very spicy - so if you want to punch up the heat a bit, you may want to add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ground red pepper to the sauce mixture. Once the layers are complete, a scattering of Monterey Jack is the finishing touch before the pan goes into the oven for a quick bake. I actually think that I like this version a bit better than the one we had in Vegas. This version seemed to be less "wet" and the flavor we thought was much cleaner and not as busy. If we made this again, I may think about adding a bit of cumin to the filling just to reinforce the smoky aspect coming from the chili powder.

Recipes
Chicken Chilaquiles