Leftovers: Creamy chicken enchiladas are comfort food at its finest

It seems like the meals that take the least amount of preparation are usually the ones that my family enjoys the most. I could work in the kitchen for hours making homemade rolls, pot roast and apple pie and then a few days later serve cereal for dinner, and they’ll squeal with equal – if not more – delight over the cereal.

It’s a little infuriating, but sometimes I make it work to my advantage. Case in point: A few days after Thanksgiving, when my desire to cook was nonexistent, I put some raw chicken breasts into the crockpot, squirted bottled barbecue sauce all over it, and let it cook on high for five hours.

Come dinnertime, I put the chicken on a plate, lightly shredded it (it was fall-apart tender by that point) and served it alongside more barbecue sauce, a salad and reheated mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving.

My family went crazy for it – so crazy I worried there wouldn’t be enough chicken left over to use for another meal later that week. But I ended up having just enough to make a crazy-simple crowd-pleaser of a dinner just a few days later. Purists, look away.

This recipe for creamy chicken enchiladas contains a couple things that cause some people to turn up their noses, namely canned condensed soup and dehydrated onions. I know some people refuse to use condensed soup, even going so far as to whip up a homemade version before even starting their actual recipe, but I’ll pop open a can any day if it will save me 20 minutes of work.

Ditto with the dehydrated onions. Having made this recipe a hundred times with both fresh and dehydrated onions, I can tell you that I prefer the texture and flavor that the dehydrated onions provide. And, again, they’re much less work.

But the leftover shredded chicken is really the hero here. Even though mine had been cooked in barbecue sauce, it didn’t carry any of that flavor once it was added to the enchilada sauces. Any plain or mildly seasoned chicken will do the trick in this recipe.

These enchiladas are comfort food at its finest: creamy, cheesy, not too much muss and fuss and an end result that is absolutely delicious. Once baked, top the individual enchiladas (or, let’s be honest, the two or three that you’re actually going to put on your plate) with a dollop of sour cream, fresh tomatoes, a spoonful of salsa and some candied jalapenos. (My family’s love for locally made B&G Sweet Heat Peppers is undying.)

Creamy chicken enchiladas will take you all of 15 minutes to prep, 30 minutes to cook and about two minutes to gobble up.

Creamy chicken enchiladas

1 can (10.5 ounce) cream of mushroom soup

1 can (10.5 ounce) cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

¼ cup dehydrated onion, or 1 finely chopped onion

2-3 cups shredded chicken

1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese

12 flour tortillas

¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9-by-13 casserole dish with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix the soups, sour cream and onion. Reserve 1 ½ cups in a small bowl and set aside. To the rest, add the chicken and 1 cup of the cheese and gently stir.

Place tortillas on a clean surface and spread about ¼ cup of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place in the casserole dish, repeating with each one until the dish is full. You may have to squeeze them together to fit.

Add ¼ cup milk to the reserved sauce (more if necessary) and stir to combine. Spread the sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle on the remaining ½ cup of cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, or until top is melted and bubbly.