White Chicken Enchilada Casserole (w/ Coconut Flour Tortillas)

Happy Sunday!  Yesterday, I was quite ambitious and was in the mood to experiment in the kitchen.  If you read my blog regularly, you know that I tackled making onion rings yesterday (oven fried and made with almond flour).  Since I was still feeling adventurous after making those, I decided to tackle the re-make of my White Chicken Enchilada Casserole and make a wheat and grain free version.  Hubby has been craving Mexican food and misses going out to eat it. So, I thought that recipe would be a good one to start revising. I decided to make half of the recipe.  That way I wouldn't waste a lot of ingredients experimenting.  Besides, it was just hubby and I eating so we didn't need to make a full version anyway.

I scoured the internet looking for a suitable grain free tortilla recipe and finally found one I wanted to try on another blog called "Against All Grain".  They were made with coconut flour and looked good. Her blog had a lot of other good looking recipes on it, too. So, other than make grain free tortillas, the other modification I needed to make was to figure out how I was going to thicken the sauce.  The original recipe called for making a roux out of butter and flour and then adding chicken stock and simmering until thickened.  I decided to try substituting coconut flour with the butter to make the roux and if that didn't thicken it sufficiently, my back up plan would be to add some cream cheese and whisk it in until it was thickened enough (I didn't want to keep adding more coconut flour).  The cream cheese took care of the thickening that I couldn't get with the coconut flour, so I won't bother putting the coconut flour in the modified recipe that I post.

The tortillas were not difficult to make...but initially they were pretty tricky to flip over.  Essentially, they are similar to crepes and if you've ever made crepes before, you know that it takes a little practice to get it just right before flipping them or you end up with flops.  Even though I only needed half of the tortilla recipe, I made the full batch to give myself allowance for some mistakes...and there were a few!  There were also a few bad words tossed around along with the tortillas (Fact Checker:  Okay...there were a LOT of bad words).  ;-)  But, by the 3rd tortilla, I figured out the secret that worked best for me.  It was by using 2 pans instead of one....and turning the crepe over upside down into the other pan that was also hot.  That was what saved me from temporary insanity.  It was kind of like making pancakes too -- you know how sometimes the first ones don't look or turn out the best?  Same thing here.  After I got the tortillas made and set aside and the sauce thickened...it was smooth sailing making the casserole the rest of the way!  The casserole turned out good...it even got the "hubby seal of approval" and satisfied his urge for Mexican!  Below I snapped a few photos (but I'm sure you already knew that) as well as the "half recipe" for the original enchilada casserole.  The half version of this recipe generously serves 3 people, possibly 4.  Hubby had 2 enchiladas and I had one (I was so full I had to put my second one back). Enjoy!

Stack of homemade tortillas -- my pride and joy!

Sauce has been poured over the filled enchiladas, just waiting to be cheesed!

Fresh out of the oven

Voila!

BOOM!

White Chicken Enchilada Casserole (Wheat/Grain/Gluten Free)

INGREDIENTS:

5-6 grain free tortillas (see link to tortilla recipe below)

1 cup cooked, shredded or chopped chicken

1-1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (if you like it spicier, substitute some pepper-jack cheese)

1-1/2 Tbsp. butter

2-3 Tbsp. cream cheese ("brick style", not whipped or soft spread)

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 (4 oz) can diced green chilies, drained

1/2 Poblano pepper, diced and sauteed (optional)

1/4 cup onion, diced and sauteed (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 7 x 11 baking pan or casserole dish

2.  Mix shredded chicken and 3/4 cup cheese.  Roll up in tortillas and place seam side down in pan.

3.  In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in cream cheese and cook 1 minute until melted.  Add broth and  

     simmer over medium heat, whisking until smooth and slightly thickened and bubbly, stirring 

     frequently.   

4.  Stir in sour cream and green chilies (and optional Poblano peppers and onions).  Do not bring to 

     boil, you don't want to curdle your sour cream.

5.  Pour sauce over enchiladas and top with remaining shredded cheese.

6.  Bake 20-25 min and then run under broiler for a few minutes to lightly brown the cheese.

*Grain Free Tortillas (from the blog, "Against All Grain"):

Link to the recipe on Against All Grain (her pics are gorgeous)!   Against All Grain Blog -- Grain Free Tortillas