Chicken and Mushroom Enchiladas with Beer-braised Black Beans

Here is a delicious family meal for you Mexican / Tex-Mex food lovers.  The majority of the alcohol cooks out of the beans leaving only the flavor, so it is kid safe.

Chicken and Mushroom Enchiladas
Ingredients

• 1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 sweet onion (peeled, quartered and thinly sliced)
• 1 package of skinless boneless chicken breasts (typically three breasts in a package. Trim and discard any excess fat or gristle. Cut into bite size pieces)
• 4 cloves of garlic (peeled and minced)
• 1 package of fresh wild mushroom blend (typically contains crimini, shitake, and oyster mushrooms. coarsely chop into bite size chunks)
• small handful of fresh cilantro (rinsed, pick leaves off of stems discarding stems, and coarsely chop leaves)
• 1 fresh lime (cut in half to squeeze out juice)
• 1 package of medium flour tortillas (about 8' in diameter)
• 1/4 cup of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of ground chipotle pepper or 1 chipotle pepper in adobe sauce minced (increase or decrease amount based on spice preference)
• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups of shredded Mexican cheese blend (or substitute shredded cheddar)

Method

Roast Peppers: Wash peppers under cold water.  Place on an aluminum-foil lined baking pan that has edges so any juice produced does not run off. Place oven rack near top and turn oven onto broil.  Place peppers under broiler (a few inches of clearance) and broil, turning peppers when the side facing the broiler turns mostly black and blistered.  Continue until both peppers are blistered and black on all sides.  Removed peppers from oven.  Carefully lift the aluminum foil with peppers out of the baking pan and place in a freezer to cool down to be handled.  After 10 - 15 minutes, remove peppers from freezer.  The peppers should be shriveled at this point.  Using your hands, pull blistered skins off the peppers.  The flesh of the pepper should not be black, instead a nice roasted variation of the original pepper color.  Tear open (they typically fall apart some) and remove the top stem part and all seeds.  It takes patience, but it is better to hand remove all of the skin and seeds without rinsing under water (which washes away the great flavored natural oils).  Tear cleaned, roasted pepper flesh into bite size pieces.

Prepare Sauce: Heat small sauce pan over medium high heat. Once warm, add a little oil to the pan to prevent sticking.  Add half of minced garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Add ground cumin and chipotle pepper and saute for half a minute.  Add crushed tomatoes and a healthy pinch of gray sea salt.  Stir well and reduce heat to medium low.  Cook, stirring occasionally for another 5 minutes to incorporate flavors.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Prepare Filling: Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.  Once the skillet is warmed up, add a little oil to the skillet to prevent sticking. Add onions and saute for 2 minutes.  Add chicken and sprinkle gray sea salt and fresh cracked pepper over chicken in skillet.  Cook chicken and onions stirring occasionally for another 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms and other half of minced garlic to skillet and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is just cooked through (another 5 minutes or so). Turn off heat.   Drain and discard any liquid produced in the skillet. Add roasted pepper pieces, chopped cilantro, and fresh squeezed lime juice from both halves of the lime to the skillet.  Stir together.

Assemble and Bake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Spread enough of the sauce onto the bottom of a rectangular 9x13 baking dish (such as pyrex) to barely cover the bottom (to prevent sticking).  Using 1 flour tortilla at a time, fill about a 1 1/4 inch diameter line of filling across the center of the tortilla (from one side to the other). Roll the tortilla around the filling to make a cylindrical shaped enchilada and place in the baking dish where the enchilada is going across the short width of the dish.  Repeat until a single layer of enchiladas cover the dish (7 enchiladas total in my experience).  Spread the remaining sauce across the top of the enchiladas in the baking dish such that it is completely covered with sauce.  Spread the shredded cheese all over the top of the sauce.  Place dish in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Beer-braised Black Beans

Beer, at least interesting tasting beer, adds a great depth of flavor to food.  Pilsners, lagers, or ales could all be used (avoid stouts or porters for this).  I tend to use Sam Adams Light Lager and it has great flavor and I typically have it stocked.  Beer is great in chili recipes as well.

Adding the chopped red onion uncooked at the end add a great texture in addition to the flavor.  Adding the uncooked, cold tomato also adds an interesting and delicious dimension to this dish. I surprised myself with how delicious this turned out.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of black beans (drained)
• 2 cloves of garlic (peeled and minced)
• 1 beer
• 1/4 cup of small chopped red onion
• 1 large ripe tomato (diced)
• small handful of fresh cilantro (rinsed, pick leaves off of stems discarding stems, and coarsely chop leaves)
• 1 fresh lime (cut in half to squeeze out juice)
• 1 lb pepper jack cheese (shred)

Method

Heat medium sauce pot over medium high heat.  Once warm, add a small amount of oil to prevent sticking. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Add black beans, a healthy pinch of gray sea salt, and enough beer to barely fill to the top of the beans.  Turn heat to 75% and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes or until beer is mostly reduced to a very small amount of liquid in the pot. Turn off heat and mix in chopped red onion, diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro, and fresh squeezed lime juice.  To serve, spoon braised black beans on plate and sprinkle shredded pepper jack cheese on top.