homemade chicken enchiladas and fredagsmys

while we're on the recipes kick, last week i went into google land in search of a recipe that would enable me to use up the cottage cheese that i had randomly purchased but failed to use. my search surprisingly lead me to the absolute best chicken enchiladas i have ever eaten, EVER. as most swedes don't even know what enchiladas are, i have never been able to find enchilada sauce in the stores here. and i must note that most swedes refer to all things mexican as "tacos". "tacos" have even become the national choice food for the incredibly swedish concept of "fredagsmys," loosely translated as "cosy fridays," friday evenings that generally consist of staying in, making dinner with friends and/or family, watching movies and/or playing games, and eating chips and/or candy. cosy, huh? :P and don't get me started on the extreme lack of authentic mexican food in this country. some days, i don't know how i'm gonna survive ;).

wow, that spiraled out of control! anyway, so i was basically forced to make my own sauce to accompany these delectable enchiladas, creating quite a bit more work for me, but OH, OH, OH! it was sooooooo worth the effort!

i made them in advance, so my husband and i both ate them first for lunch the next day. just after i'd eaten mine and ooh'ed and ahh'ed over them for half an hour, i got a text from him saying that i had made him the best lunch box he'd ever had :)! these little pieces of heaven were the result:

now you really want the recipe, right? well, you can check it out here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cottage-Cheese-Chicken-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx

as usual, i made slight modifications: less cheese on top; whole wheat flour tortillas; light crème fraiche instead of sour cream; and enchilada spices instead of taco seasoning mix. and the crazy thing is that after chopping the chicken in the food processor, i started filling the tortillas without frying the meat and adding the spices. NO PROBLEM! i just sprinkled some of the spice into the whole mixture and added some fresh sprigs of coriander/cilantro (as we're slightly obsessed with it), and they turned out FABULOUSLY! i even had some extra spice mix left over, so i used it to season my whole grain & black rice with black beans side dish i whipped up, and it was SUPER yummy! :P 

one modification i should mention, though, is one i read in the comments of the recipe. using my scrumptious homemade enchilada sauce, i covered the base of my 9x13 dish and then basically covered each tortilla with sauce (inside and out) to keep everything juicy and flavourful...so glad i did! not a cruncy bit of tortilla to be found!

oh yeah, i also made a few changes to enchilada sauce; what else is new? i didn't have any ancho chiles at home, so i used the regular chiles that i did have and added in some chipotle sauce and smoked paprika spice that i had on had to give it that lovely smokey taste. and since the half-full tube of tomato paste i had at home wasn't quite enough, i threw in a handfull of sun-dried tomatoes and puréed away! perfect! (i love improvising in the kitchen; keeps life exciting!) :)

happy creating!