Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Enchiladas come in many forms, but in terms of instant name recognition and popularity, it’s hard to compete with enchiladas verdes. After recently developing a recipe for <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/quick-salsa-verde">salsa verde</a>, it only seemed logical to take the next step and put it to use in a batch of chicken enchiladas.For this recipe, I like to keep things simple with lightly fried corn tortillas wrapped around perfectly cooked chicken, sauced with a silky salsa verde. The enchiladas are baked just long enough to heat everything through, and then get topped with a sprinkling of salty cotija cheese, and a drizzle of crema.For any dish with just a few components, quality ingredients and sound cooking techniques are always key to delicious results. Making salsa and corn tortillas from scratch may seem like a lot of work, but the payoff is huge. That’s not to say that making this recipe has to be an all-day affair. The level of involvement is up to you.For the filling, I’ve developed recipes for both classic stovetop poached chicken breast that’s incredibly juicy and moist, as well as a spatchcocked roast chicken that delivers both white and dark meat, crunchy skin, and deep umami flavor thanks to a generous sprinkling of chicken bouillon powder. But if you prefer the convenience of sous vide chicken breast, or just a rotisserie bird that you can pick up at the supermarket, those options work just fine as well. You can use store-bought salsa instead of homemade, and feel free to buy tortillas instead of making them yourself. No judgment here.For me, good enchiladas start with tortillas made from <a href="make-your-own-fresh-masa-with-just-a-blender">fresh masa</a>, no question. Prepackaged tortillas can still be good—you just need to know how to prepare them.Some quick science: Flour tortillas stay stretchy because of gluten and a good amount of fat in the dough, while the corn variety gets their stretch from the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/make-your-own-fresh-masa-with-just-a-blender">nixtamalization process</a>, which gives them some elasticity when they’re warm. But once corn tortillas cool, they become brittle due to starch retrogradation, and reheating doesn’t help. Frying store-bought tortillas in a bit of oil helps them become pliable while also creating a barrier to keep the sauce from soaking in and disintegrating the tortilla.At their best, chicken enchiladas verdes de pollo are a balancing act of flavor and texture: the bright acidity of the tomatillos and the chile heat in the salsa verde are tempered by the poached chicken filling without drowning out the corn aroma of the tortillas. At their worst, they can end up a soggy mess, with tattered tortillas swimming in watery salsa, covering up dry and under-seasoned meat. One failed component can bring down the whole… enchilada. With these recipes, you’ll never have to suffer sad enchiladas again.

Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo (Green Enchiladas With Chicken)