Colm O'Gorman: My recipe for authentic chicken enchiladas is the perfect weekend comfort food

An authentic enchilada sauce with chicken and black beans - plus easy ways to customise your fillings

Oozy, cheesy deliciousness. The enchilada sauce can be made in advance. 

Enchiladas are the perfect comfort food. If overfilled they can sometimes be a little stodgy for my taste, but these chicken, black bean and feta enchiladas are quite light, especially when served with my fresh salsa. 

I made them this week and we had them with the salsa and a simple but delicious Mexican slaw made with shredded white cabbage, green chillies, lime and coriander. It was perfect and added a lovely freshness to the dish. If you fancy the slaw, just thinly shred half a white cabbage, finely dice a green chilli and toss them together with the juice of half a lime with a few tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander and half a teaspoon of flaky sea salt. It is that simple.

You can make the sauce in advance for this dish. It will keep in the fridge for several days and if you do that it takes very little time to then assemble and bake your enchiladas. While this recipe is a great way to use up left-over cooked chicken, I love it so much that I often roast a chicken just to make this and then use the leftover chicken for lunch the next day. You can of course just roast a few portions of chicken to get enough meat for the enchiladas, half a chicken will give you about 500g of cooked meat.

You can use other ingredients for your fillings if you wish. Minced beef cooked with some onions and cumin and seasoned with salt and pepper as a filling with some sauteed or roasted red pepper would be good. For a vegetarian option, substitute the cooked chicken for roast butternut squash. Simply peel and then chop a butternut squash into 2cm chunks before roasting it in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and chilli flakes. It is wonderful with the beans and feta.

Chicken and black bean enchiladas

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Oozy, cheesy and delicious. The ultimate Mexican comfort food

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 25 mins

Total Time

 45 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Mexican

Ingredients

• For the enchilada sauce:

• 6 medium tomatoes

• 2 green chillies

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 red onion

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 250ml chicken stock

• Salt to season

• For the enchiladas:

• 8 medium sized tortillas

• 500g cooked shredded chicken

• ½ tin of black beans

• 100g feta cheese

• 100g extra mature cheddar

• For the salsa:

• 3 medium tomatoes

• 1 clove of garlic

• ½ red onion

• 2 green chillies

• 20g fresh coriander

• ½ tsp ground cumin

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Juice of a lime

Method

1. Heat a heavy based frying pan or skillet over a high heat. Wash the tomatoes and chillies. Peel and cut the red onion into quarters and peel the garlic. Put everything into the dry pan and roast until they are charred, blistered and soft all over. This will take about 20-25 minutes, but the garlic and chillies will be ready about ten minutes before the onion and tomatoes. When all the vegetables are roasted, pop the lot into a food processor and blitz them until they are smooth.

2. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the sauce, bringing it to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Add the apple cider vinegar, the oregano and about a teaspoon of flaky sea salt. If using fine sea salt, add just half a teaspoon. Cover the pan and let the sauce simmer for fifteen minutes before adding the chicken stock. Stir the stock in and taste to check the flavour. Add more salt to season if required, or more vinegar and a little sugar to suit your own taste. Take the sauce off the heat and set aside for now.

3. Heat your oven to 180°C. Shred the chicken meat, drain the black beans, grate the Cheddar, and crumble the feta. Cover the base of an oven proof roasting dish with some of the sauce. I use a ceramic lasagne style dish to bake my enchiladas, it is exactly the right width to take a stuffed and rolled tortilla. If you are using larger tortillas, lay them lengthways in your dish instead.

4. Spread a tablespoon or so of the sauce over one of your tortillas. Now place some cooked chicken in the centre of the tortilla, then some black beans and finally some crumbled feta. Roll the tortilla and place it seam side down in the roasting dish. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas until you have them all nicely tucked into the roasting dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle the grated cheddar on top. Pop the dish in the oven and bake for about twenty to twenty-five minutes until the cheese has melted and browned a little.

5. While the enchiladas are cooking, make the salsa. Roughly chop the tomatoes, removing the stalks. Do the same with the chillies, leaving in the seeds if you want the salsa to be hot and spicy. Roughly chop the onion, the garlic, and the coriander. You should use the stalks of the coriander as well as the leaves as they have lots of flavour. Pop everything into a food processor and pulse until chopped. Do not puree them, you want them diced for a good texture. You can dice them by hand if you prefer. Pop everything into a bowl, add the cumin, lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Taste and add more lime juice or seasoning as needed.

6. Serve two enchiladas per person, with a dollop of sour cream on top, finished with some sliced red chilli and some fresh coriander. Serve the salsa on the side and ideally, some beautiful Mexican slaw.