New Look; Same Book

 Hatch Chile Cookbook has had a face lift...

New cover, same great recipes.

Print -- $17.95, 324 pages, 300 recipes. Available on Amazon.

The ebook is available at Amazon, Apple, Smashwords, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble for $7.99.

Hatch Chile Cheesy Chicken Fajitas

I've been planning on making fajitas for a while, ever since I got my new Fajita Sizzler Set which promises to make every day a Fiesta. I'm all for that. To celebrate the Hatch harvest, and to break in my Fajita Sizzler Set, I made Hatch Chile Cheesy Chicken Fajitas. Some people put cheese on fajitas; others don't, but we are a cheese-loving family, so cheesy fajitas it is.

• 1/2 (26 oz.) package frozen, pre-cooked Fajita-seasoned chicken breast strips
• 1 T. ground cumin, divided
• 1 T. fajita seasoning, divided (Yes, I know the chicken is already seasoned for fajitas, but we like lots of flavor.)
• 1 - 2 T. butter, or margarine, if you prefer
• 1 large onion, cut into slices
• 1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 hot roasted Hatch chile, char removed, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped
• Squeeze or two of lime juice
• 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• Guacamole

Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in 1/4 cup water and half the package of chicken strips (to feed four). Sprinkle with half the cumin and half the fajita seasoning. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes, until the chicken is browned and the water has evaporated. Or, get involved in the Beatles Anthology on TV like I did and ignore the chicken. It will burn nicely. You'll smell it before the smoke detector goes off. Actually, I was going for an authentic, smoky flavor. I rescued the chicken by adding a little water to the skillet, then stirring the chicken in the smoky sauce. Remove the chicken to a plate and set aside.

Add the butter to the hot skillet. When it sizzles, add the onion slices and both the green and red bell peppers. Sprinkle with the remaining half of the cumin and fajita seasoning. Saute until the bell peppers are limp and the onions are a nice color of brown. If they're giving you a bit of trouble and staying crunchy when they're supposed to be going soft, add a little water to the skillet, cover, and let the veggies sweat. (You're not being mean to the veggies; you're just helping them soften.) Add the garlic and saute for one minute, then stir in the chopped Hatch chile and heat through.

How good are you at multi-tasking in the kitchen... doing three things at once? While you're sauteing and maybe or maybe not sweating the onions and peppers, depending on how they behave for you, heat a separate, 10-inch skillet or comal on medium-low heat, place the tortillas, one at a time in the pan, and warm them on both sides, until they're either soft and pliable or a bit crunchy--however you like them, then place them in a tortilla warmer. Mix the Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses together in a bowl.

In between sauteing the veggies and warming tortillas, return the chicken to the veggie skillet, toss to mix and heat through. Place the chicken, onions, and bell pepper mixture on the fajita skillet for serving. Squeeze a little lime juice over everything to add some zip to your fajitas and to accent the flavor.

Put the fajita mixture into warmed tortillas, smother with cheese, and enjoy with a side of guacamole.

These were the best fajitas--ever!! Really. The Hatch chile added the perfect zing and the very-well-done chicken was brown and smoky.

Chicken and Cream Cheese Enchiladas with Hatch Chile Sauce Smothered with Colby Jack Cheese

Ok, I know that's a long title for a blog post, but it perfectly describes my Chicken and Cream Cheese Enchiladas with Hatch Chile Sauce Smothered with Colby Jack Cheese.

 

• 1 (15 oz.) can chunk white chicken, drained
• 1/2 medium onion, very finely diced
• Freshly ground black pepper, ground cumin, and chili powder, to taste
• 1 clove garlic, very finely diced
• 1 (14 oz.) can Hatch enchilada sauce, divided
• 10 (6-inch) white corn tortillas, softened (place them, one by one, in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds, but don't tell anyone you did it this way; it's a secret... well it's not really a secret; it's more like a helpful hint)
• 1 (8 oz.) brick Colby Jack cheese, cut into 20 logs (if you love ooey, gooey cheese, cut them thick)
• 3/4 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, cut into 10 logs (it doesn't cut very nicely, and you'll be stretching it later, so don't worry about it)
• 1 (8 oz.) package shredded Colby Jack cheese

Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray (or a dab or two of butter if you prefer). Add the chicken and onions. Saute until the onions are soft. Season with freshly ground black pepper, cumin, and chili powder. Wait a minute, then stir it again,  seasoning it for the second time with all the above-mentioned spices. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, just until you get a good whiff of garlic in the air. Add a little bit of the enchilada sauce into the chicken mixture, just to moisten it a bit, and stir to mix. Take the pan off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour a little of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 13 x 9 glass baking dish.

Lay one softened tortilla in the sauce in the baking dish. Add 2 logs of Colby Jack, one cream cheese log (stretch it to fit over the cheese logs), and a spoonful or two of the chicken mixture. Roll it up (your hands are going to get very messy with the sauce, but that's part of the joy of making enchiladas). When you're done rolling, it should already be seam side down, so just push it to the end of the baking dish and repeat nine more times. You may have to add more sauce to the baking dish to coat the tortillas as you roll them. You should end up with eight in a row and two on the side.

Smother with the whole package of Colby Jack cheese, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and lose the aluminum foil cover. Return to the oven to let the cheese brown for 5 more minutes or so.

Let them rest for 5 minutes before you try to scoop them out of the baking dish. I've found that using a spatula on one side and a serving spoon on the other side works very nicely in getting the first one out of the baking dish intact.

BTW, I somehow "lost" the picture that went with this recipe, so I "borrowed" one.

Hatch is Here!

Just got an email from Central Market that Hatch chiles are now in the store. WooHoo!

On my way out the door right now. Be back with some Hatch and lots of new recipes.