Honey Lime Enchiladas

After several days of writing fashion, I need a break.  This blog is called Olio as I want to cover a wide variety of topics, but when you sit at a fashion week for four days straight it does tend to take over all aspects of your life.  Don't worry, I have a couple more fashion posts to put up this week about designers I saw at Vancouver Fashion Week, but for this morning I to give everyone - including myself - a short diversion.  Let's talk food.

I used to love to cook and would spend hours looking through magazines and cookbooks for new ideas.  Even when the kids were small I used to make all our bread.  Then life got busy.  Activities, work, family and life in general sped up to the point it was too hard to keep organized.  Mama Costco became a dearly loved member of our family.

Now that my house is full of adults, my schedule is mine own to set. A couple of months ago I had the chance to watch Julie and Julia.  While the movie was not my favourite, it did remind me that I once loved to experiment in the kitchen.  Then my daughter began wandering through my stash of cookbooks for recipes to make her new love interest, and friend Lisa Wong (Solo Lisa) began to try out different recipes which she talked about on her blog.  I realized my interest in cooking was returning. It was time to start enjoying myself in the kitchen again.  I was tired of just putting out food.

My fav is the one on the left which is in a bag, but you can get it in cans too like on the right.

One option I occasionally take advantage of after I finish my post for the day is the next blog button.  99 percent of the time it is something that doesn't interest me, but you never know what you will see.  Once I found the site of a designer in Milan that made really interesting crocheted collars.  Two days ago I hit on a blog that didn't have that much appeal with the exception that they had included a recipe that caught my eye - Honey Lime Enchiladas.  After being at afternoon/evening events most of the week, I decided to take Sunday off and actually cook.  I wanted a new taste and the mixture of honey and lime made this recipe my hands down choice.

For those of you who do not cook for a family I will tell you point blank, unless you keep it simple food, you're not going to please everyone.  I love to try recipes that offer a different taste, especially fusion ideas where you take something expected and give it an unusual twist.  (In a future blog I will share a recipe that my friend lovingly calls "Yam Pad Thai" - it's amazing.)  With family members you're bound to have some that like it and some that don't.  This person likes it spicy, that person doesn't like spice - and on it goes.  So when you start experimenting with traditional favourites, it's always a crap shoot. 

Honey Lime Enchiladas was one of those rare surprises that everyone loved.   Lots of flavour, not spicy (although you could easily kick that up), that unusual hint of honey to give it a twist and it's easy to put together quickly if you buy your cheese grated.  The only issue is if you have a Hispanic food store near you where you can pick up the green enchilada sauce. The only change - I used 8 tortillas instead of 10-12 and adjusted the recipe below.  I like my enchiladas with more filling.

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Honey Lime Enchiladas 

Four Servings (2 each)

6 T    honey
5 T    lime juice (approx. 1 large or 2 small limes)
1 T    chili powder
1/2 tsp  garlic powder
1 lb.  chicken breast cooked and shredded - see note

(Note - I often buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, remove the skin and shred the meat. Works great.) 
8       small flour tortillas (regular or wheat)
1 lb    Monterey jack cheese, shredded (or 1/2 sharp cheddar-1/2 Mont. Jack)
16 oz   green enchilada sauce (not salsa, sauce) ****
1 c     heavy cream or half and half

*** This is a specialty item so be sure you can find before you plan to make this recipe.  Not Green Salsa, you need Green Enchilada Sauce (also called Green Chili Enchilada sauce). 

Mix the honey, lime juice, chili powder and garlic together and toss with the shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour (or toss together in a ziploc bag and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours).  Reserve approximately 1 cup of cheese and mix the rest into the marinated chicken.

Mix together the cream or half and half with the green enchilada sauce. Pour about 1/2 cup on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade if the chicken did not soak it all up. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.