Enchilada Chicken

Summer 2023. The house is full. The twins are nine — almost ten — which means they're in the phase where they're old enough to have real opinions and young enough to still want to be near you, which is a window that closes faster than you want it to. I've been eating breakfast at the kitchen table every morning this summer and whoever wakes up first comes and sits with me. Most mornings it's Marco, who wakes up with purpose even in summer. He makes his own coffee now — watched me do it enough times — and he sits across the table with his coffee and his book and we don't talk for the first twenty minutes. This is how I know he's mine.

Training camp in three weeks. This is my fifth camp at Eldorado Prep. I've stopped counting in a way that involves self-consciousness — it's just the fifth August, which is indistinguishable from the job. The preparations are the most refined they've been: the protocol is in the coaches' hands without me running every meeting, the conditioning standard is embedded in the culture, the playbook installation happens in sequence because everyone knows the sequence. When a program reaches this level of self-organization, you spend your time managing people and situations rather than managing process. The process runs itself.

Seventh chile roasting. Forty-five pounds. Diego, Marco, Elena, Lisa. The four of them organized the assembly while I ran the propane. It felt like watching something I built become something they own. That's the handoff. That's the whole point. You do the thing with people until they can do it without you, and then you stand there and watch them do it and feel proud rather than obsolete.

After the roasting was done and the chiles were bagged and the propane was off, I wanted to cook something that actually used what we’d made — something that put the season’s work on the table in a way the kids could taste directly. Enchilada chicken is the recipe I come back to when I want the chile flavor to lead without a lot of noise around it. It’s the kind of dish that rewards the preparation you’ve already done, and watching Marco and Diego set the table while it finished in the oven felt like a continuation of the same handoff I’d been thinking about all afternoon.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
1 can (10 oz) red enchilada sauce
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, for serving
Sour cream and sliced jalapeños, optional for serving

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with olive oil or nonstick spray.
Season the chicken. Pat chicken breasts dry. In a small bowl, combine garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Drizzle chicken with olive oil and rub the spice mixture evenly over all sides.
Arrange and sauce. Place seasoned chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish in a single layer. Pour the enchilada sauce evenly over the top, making sure each piece is well coated.
Bake uncovered. Bake for 22–25 minutes, until the chicken is nearly cooked through and registers 160°F on an instant-read thermometer.
Add the cheese. Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle shredded cheese evenly over the chicken. Return to oven and bake an additional 5–7 minutes, until cheese is fully melted and bubbly and chicken reaches 165°F internal temperature.
Rest and serve. Let the chicken rest in the pan for 5 minutes before serving. Top with fresh cilantro and serve with sour cream and jalapeños if desired. Pairs well with rice, warm tortillas, or roasted vegetables.

Nutrition (per serving)

Enchilada Chicken — What Comes After the Roasting Season