Friday, May 14, 2010

A Challenging Cinco de Mayo

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

The May Daring Cooks challenge was very special since Barbara and I hosted the challenge. This was quite the undertaking. We agreed to do at the end of last year and started working on it January, exchanging information and drafts via e-mail. Since our challenge ran from April 17 to May 14 and included May 5, Cinco de Mayo, we decided to do a Mexican dish. As it turned out, this was a very popular choice!

Our recipe was stacked chicken enchiladas with a green chile sauce. Above is the photo of the raw ingredients. The little green things with papery husks are tomatillos, an ingredient which is frequently used in Mexican cooking but which is not universally available around the world, as we found out.

Challenges have to be something that stretches the Daring Cooks. We required a homemade sauce. If the ingredients or flavors for the green tomatillo and chile sauce were not available or not something the cook thought would work, any other sauce was an option. People did red sauces, moles, cremas, and some very innovative things with local ingredients (North African sauce, anyone?). While we suggested stacked enchiladas with corn tortillas, people were free to roll their enchiladas or use flour tortillas or even some other substitute if tortillas or the ingredients for making them were not available. We suggested using grilled chicken, but there were beef, black bean and a wide array of other fillings used. And we used Monterey Jack, but there were lots of other cheeses, including Mexican cheeses, that people added to their enchiladas. Recipes are supposed to include variations for vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free cooking. This recipe was really ideal for all that. Corn tortillas for those avoiding gluten; vegetarian fillings for those avoiding meat; cheese optional for the vegans - worked out really well.

The creativity of the cooks was absolutely amazing. And the pictures! As I took my turn commenting on and complimenting those Daring Cooks who posted their results, I was drooling continuously. So many intriguing combinations, interesting marinades and solutions to problems finding ingredients - truly inspirational.

This was my final product and it was just as good as the first time I made this recipe years ago. I added some chipotle Tabasco sauce to the chicken, along with salt, pepper and some cumin, making the heat in the dish slightly more pronounced. The roasted chiles and tomatillos make a really succulent and spicy sauce. Below is a picture I "borrowed" from Barbara of the chiles as they went from raw to roasted. Mine looked pretty much the same, but her picture was better (thanks, Barbara).

From the comments we received, I think the Daring Cooks really enjoyed this challenge. For many of them, it was an introduction to Mexican cooking; for others, it was a chance to try something new. And, as might be expected, there were also a few mentions of margaritas on the menus!

My very special thanks to Barbara, without whom I could not have done this. She not only has an incredible blog to showcase her creative culinary endeavors, she is a master of the world of blog technicalities and dealt with the links, the pictures and the formatting. Plus her pictures were really good and she has an eye for detail. I think we were a good team and I'm very proud of our efforts.

29 comments:

  1. Thanks for co-hosting this fun challenge! I loved the green chile sauce and will certainly make it again, and my family really enjoyed the enchiladas!
    Winnie from Healthy Green Kitchen

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  2. I love this, it's very yummy, you and Barbara made an excellent choice for this month's challenge. I've never made enchiladas at home until now..and I'll do it again and again.. :)Thanks Bunnee! :)

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  3. Thank you so much for hosting this month, and for sharing with us such a wonderful, fun, delicious recipe! It was so fun to see how creative everyone was with it, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

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  4. I absolutely LOVED this challenge...and it was my first one! Thanks!

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  5. THANK YOU for hosting a terrific challenge. The green chile & tomatillo sauce was fabulous and now I'm inpsired to try other Mexican sauces. You're absolutely right about the Daring Cooks being such an inspiration.

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  6. Thankyou for hosting this wonderful challenge with us bunnee, i loved it!

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  7. Bunnee, thanks for choosing such a wonderful theme for the month. Fantastic fun!! :))

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  8. It was a wonderful challenge and the time and effort you spent in preparation for it is really appreciated. Your own presentation looks gorgeous. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

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  9. This was a great recipe, and we particularly enjoyed making our own tortillas. Thanks for being the host, and congratulations!

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  10. Awwww - now I want to rewrite my post. You summed up our challenge experience so well. Although, you did way more work than you give yourself credit for. I wouldn't have wanted to do it without you. Congratulations on choosing such a fabulous recipe!

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  11. Thanks for co-hosting this challenge! It was a lot of fun to try a different take on something that I've been eating since childhood!

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  12. Thanks for picking this great challenge. We loved the recipe so much that it has now become a true favorite! We did not find tomatillos though, but nevertheless thanks for this!

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  13. Thanks for such a great challenge! The hubby and I loved the recipe and there was enough sauce left that I will be able to have it for quite sometime to put on top of all kinds of goodies :)

    Oh and I have to say I love the fact that you used Tillamook cheese! I don't get to have it since I moved from Oregon, but it's a little something that brings up fond memories from my old home :D

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  14. Ciao !! Thanks for hosting such a fun challenge !! We loved it !

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  15. I loved this challenge! Thanks so much for hosting! I will definitely be revisiting this recipe. :)

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  16. (I have some chipotle tobasco, so maybe I'll try that next time with my chicken..)

    Thank you for a GREAT recipe!!! I am so glad you picked Mexican food! :D

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  17. This was a MOST excellent adventure! Your stacks look fabulous!

    Donna

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  18. Bunnee! Thanks for a great challenge ... I loved it!

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  19. Thank you for a great challenge. I really enjoyed every aspect of it. You and Barbara did a fantastic job.

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  20. Thanks for hosting the challenge, it was very encouraging that you made comments on our posts at the forums. Great job!

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  21. Great job and thank you for the challenge. it was a pleasure to prepare and eat!

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  22. I really, really loved this challenge - thanks again!

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  23. Thank you so much for all of your time, effort, support and hard work. I really loved this challeng, as did everyone who got to taste elements from it!! Thank you!!!

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  24. Thanks for being one of our hosts this month! Yummy challenge. :)

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  25. Thank you for co-hosting this very intriguing and inspiring challenge YES it was really good to see all the different varieties by the other DCs. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia. Your final version looks so cheesy and tasty well done.

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  26. Thank you so much for this yummy challenge..one that spurred me to finally tackle a good mole sauce! Your enchilada and the photos look fabulous!

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  27. Thank you for hosting this month's challenge. I enjoyed roasting the peppers. It motivated me to finally use the broiler pan in my oven... lol.

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  28. Thank you for a delicious challenge!! My kitchen smelled wonderful while the sauce was simmering!

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  29. Still getting around to all the posts I can. Just wanted to say thanks for a great challenge. I really appreciated the flexibility you allowed us. I will definitely make these over and over.

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