Chicken Enchiladas with Rotisserie Chicken

The community center workshop is Saturday. I have spent the week doing what I do before every workshop: running the assembly sequence, checking the timing, rechecking the timing, and then acknowledging that I have checked the timing three times and the timing is correct and I need to stop checking the timing. The anxiety before workshops has not diminished. I have decided it is not anxiety; it is preparation with excess energy. The excess energy makes enchiladas at 2 AM. I am learning to let it.

Twenty-eight women registered. This is more than twice the church workshop. Some of them I do not know from the ward, some from completely outside the church, which is a thing that has not happened before and which I find both exciting and unfamiliar. The LDS culture is the water I swim in; I have been teaching to people who share it. Teaching to women who do not share it means my system has to stand on its own merits, which I believe it does, but which I have not yet tested in this specific way. I prepared an extra handout insert for the non-LDS attendees explaining what a Relief Society is, which Olivia proofread and said: Mom, you do not need to explain what a Relief Society is, you need to explain what you do. I changed the insert. She is eleven going on forty.

I made a practice batch this week: full sequence, timed, in my kitchen. Twelve bags of taco soup, four bags of shepherd's pie filling, six bags of chicken enchilada filling, four bags of pulled pork. Total time: two hours nineteen minutes for twenty-six bags. The kitchen looked like a production line. Mason walked in and said: it looks like a factory. I said: it is a factory. He nodded with the respect of someone who has opinions about factories and finds this one sound.

Brandon made dinner Thursday to free me up for planning: grilled cheese and tomato soup from a can. The kids loved it. Grilled cheese has a way of being exactly what you need in August when the summer is starting to feel long and the back-to-school lists are on the table. It is the dinner of transition, and Thursday was a transitional sort of evening.

Tomorrow: the workshop. Twenty-eight women and the system I have been building for eight months. I am ready.

Of the four recipes I ran through during my practice batch this week, the chicken enchilada filling is the one I keep coming back to as the heart of the workshop. It is the recipe that converts people. You hand someone a bag of this filling and tell them it took eight minutes to assemble, and you can see the moment they decide the system is real. This is the version I will be walking twenty-eight women through on Saturday — rotisserie chicken, a handful of pantry staples, and a method that holds up whether you are making six bags or sixty.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup frozen corn
1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
2 cups red enchilada sauce, divided
2 cups shredded Mexican-blend cheese, divided
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 large flour tortillas
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for topping
Sour cream, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Set your oven to 375°F. Spread 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce across the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish.
Make the filling. In a large bowl, combine the shredded rotisserie chicken, black beans, diced tomatoes, corn, green chiles, 1/2 cup enchilada sauce, 1 cup shredded cheese, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt. Stir until everything is evenly mixed.
Fill and roll. Spoon about 1/2 cup of filling down the center of each tortilla. Roll tightly and place seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.
Top and cover. Pour the remaining 1 cup of enchilada sauce evenly over the rolled tortillas. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese on top. Cover the dish tightly with foil.
Bake. Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the edges are bubbling.
Serve. Let cool for 5 minutes. Top with fresh cilantro and serve with sour cream.

Freezer Meal Note: To freeze as a filling batch, prepare through step 2 and transfer the filling to a gallon-sized freezer bag. Press flat, label with the date, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then pick up at step 3.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chicken Enchiladas with Rotisserie Chicken — The Recipe That Got Workshop-Tested at 2 AM