Las Manitas Enchiladas Zacatecanas

Mama's Kitchen (Hope)'s Note:

SUPERB! is the only way I can describe this AUTHENTIC Mexican dish served at Las Manitas or little hands, an amazing restaurant in the heart of Austin owned by sisters Lidia and Cynthia Perez. Sad day :( This restaurant closed 9/4 due to downtown development in Austin. We miss you Las Manitas! Hurry back so we can come to your new location! The Congress Avenue cafe is as much an Austin institution as the bats under the bridge. Food for the eye is served here as well! The owners are also the founders of La Pena, an organization to promote Latin arts, and display this amazing artwork proudly. So if you find yourself in our beautiful capitol make sure you stop in for an amazing treat! If you can't make it to Texas, bring Texas to you with this amazing recipe!

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 10 corn tortillas
• 4 cups chicken , cooked and shredded
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 garlic clove , minced
• ½ medium onion , chopped
• 1 medium tomato , chopped
• ½ bell pepper , seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 4 sprigs cilantro
• 1 ½ teaspoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt (to taste)
• ½ cup chicken broth

Zacatecana Sauce

• 4 poblano chiles , roasted and seeded, canned is fine
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup grated monterey jack cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 2 flour tortillas , torn into quarters
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt (to taste)

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan melt butter using low heat. Add the garlic, onions, tomato, bell peppers, pepper, marjoram, cilantro and cumin and sauté until soft, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in shredded chicken and sauté briefly. Add tomato sauce and broth, taste and add salt if needed.
3. Meanwhile, place chiles in a blender with water, cheese, olive oil, sour cream and flour tortillas. Purée until smooth adding water if necessary to get the mixture moving. The sauce should be thick but thin enough to be pourable.
4. In a saute pan using medium-high heat add a drizzle of olive oil. When oil and pan are hot add the sauce and salt. It will sizzle when added to the oil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet or sauté pan. Quickly fry corn tortillas for just a few seconds on each side or heat them in a microwave in paper towels to soften.
6. Fill tortillas with chicken, roll and place seam side down in serving dish or on plate and pour sauce on top.
7. Serve with additional cheese, and garnish with sour cream.

Reviews

[Sooz Cooks]

Another FABULOUS recipe from Mama's Kitchen! I doubled the recipe but not the number of poblanos since I was feeding 5 adults and 3 kids ages 4 to 80. Cooked my chicken in the crock pot all dayand so used the broth from cooking my chicken in the sauce instead of water. I used freshly made corn tortillas from the market up the street so I didn't need to fry the tortillas in oil because they were already so soft and pliable. I didn't realize until I got the enchiladas rolled and in the pan covered in sauce that you didn't bake them and I hadn't started my rice which takes 20 minutes to cook. SO I just popped the enchilada pans in the oven at 350 for time it took to make the rice. Everyone gobbled these enchiladas up including the kids. While my husband was watching me make the sauce he thought adding flour tortillas to the blender was really unusual but the flavor...... AWSOME! Thanks again Hope for another of you fantastic recipes that we will have over and over!

[**Tinkerbell**]

I haven't eaten a corn tortilla since I was a kid. I have never liked them so I was really surprised at how much we all enjoyed them in this recipe. We love enchiladas but have been making the same chicken or beef recipes for years. We're thrilled to have found a new & exciting recipe for them! I really wanted to make everything as stated but the two grocery stores in our area did not have poblanos, fresh or canned. I was distraught & waited another 3 days to see if the fresh peppers would be restocked but they are still out today. I looked online & found some substitution suggestions. In one it was suggested to use a jalapeno & a green bell pepper. Well, I had the jalapenos but only about 1/4 of the green bell so I used those plus half a red & half an orange pepper. I know the sauce was much sweeter than intended (and much more orange lol) but we enjoyed it & are anxious to make this recipe again with the poblanos, when possible. I have to say that my favorite part of this recipe was how easy it was. I loved that there was no oven time involved. Especially with summer on the way. Thanks for sharing a little piece of the big state, Mama! Made & enjoyed for ZWT5 - Ali Baba's Babes. :)

[DancingPanda]

This was really good...our only big complaint was that we used tortillas that were too big - tasted more tortilla than I would have liked it to... Added a bit too much water to the sauce - was halving the recipe and didn't catch the 1 cup of water on the 2nd page to change to 1/2. Still really good - will definitely make again - I will just adjust the recipe more carefully and look for those hidden measurements. Thanks for posting