Enchiladas & Taquitos

I love Mexican food and will go out of my way to recreate some of my favorite menu items at home. One such example: enchiladas and taquitos.

While putting up last night's tortilla soup leftovers, I noticed a few things that needed to be used: Mexican cheese, refrigerated tortillas, boiled chicken. Okay, so the Mexican cheese didn't exacly have to be used but I fell in love with it and needed to create a supper around it-love it...melts beautifully and not too strong...a perfectly stringy cheese....Ahh.....yum.

I thought the cheese would be great in enchiladas, but I hate the whole process of making them. I once took the easy way out had bought frozen taquitos and poured some leftover enchilada soup on them. They were a real crowd pleaser too. This got me to thinking-I can make taquitos and enchiladas at the same time...but...easier.

What you'll need:
2-3 chicken breasts, shredded
1/2 to 1 cup Kraft Authentic Mexican cheese blend, preshreded ;)
1t each ground cumin, garlic powder, dried cilantro
salt, pepper to taste
Enough sour cream to make the above ingredients stick together
12 refrigerated tortillas
Leftover tortilla soup (or a can of tortilla soup'll do)
additional cheese

Mix the first 5 ingredients. Depending on how much you like cheese, use anywhere from a half to a whole cup of the yummy stuff here.

While mixing the chicken mixture, start cooking your refrigerated tortillas as directed on the package. My LaAbuela brand says one minute per side over medium heat. I undercooked them slightly since they were getting cooked again in the oven. This helped them not to get too dry while rolling.

Spread 1-2T of chicken mixture in the tortillas and roll tightly. Place seam side down on a greased, foil lined pan. Generously spray the tops of each taquito with cooking spray. I was only able to get 8 taquitos on my pan so the rest went into a casserole dish for enchiladas. Spray this dish as well, then spread a little tortilla soup in the bottom of it. Place rolled taquitos in the casserole dish and cover with soup and more cheese.

Bake at 300 for about 25-30 minutes. Flip taquitos half way through cooking time. These will brown easily toward the end so watch closely.

I used two small chicken breasts in my mixture because that's what was left over. I ran out of mixture for the last few so I made the same mixture without the chichen...cheese enchiladas/taquitos. They were great as well-may do half of each next time.

My husband and 18 month old son loved these. The lil man only had the enchiladas and had to dip them in a little sour cream...we are dippers around here....another reason why I love Mexican food-so many things you can dip, dunk, or drowned in hot sauce....YUM!