Sweet and Sour Pomegranate Thai Chicken Enchiladas
Anyone else notice that I seem to have a “Christmas color” theme going on here in the Messy Kitchen? Seriously, the last three recipes I’ve shared have been red and green! This particular one has been filed away under the “must make” category for far too long. It’s even been elevated to the “must make this week!” category more than once. That unfortunately happens all too much with Tieghan’s recipes, although I have made and loved a handful of them. She comes up with some of the most amazing and creative flavor combinations and seduces me with gorgeous photos (seriously, can someone come over and make me this for me tonight?), but the number of steps and ingredients often deters me when I’m on the look out for something quick and easy. Which these days, is pretty much always.
Anyways, with Holly and Jason coming over for dinner Monday night, this week was the week. This recipe requires a few steps, but actually wasn’t too difficult – I think hands on time was easily less than an hour, although I’m quite efficient in the kitchen. And these didn’t disappoint. In fact, I scraped my plate clean (too sticky to lick!). And Courtney’s plate. And Holly’s too. (Jason did a pretty alright job on his own.) To make these even more Christmassy, I served with kale salad with cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Holly taught me that if you massage the kale with just a little bit of olive oil and a tiny bit of salt it does wonders!
One things I do need to note about these enchiladas: they are really high in sugar and sodium. As a nutrition educator in training, I feel the responsibility to mention these things! I woke up the next morning with puffy fingers. This should come as no surprise, as the sauce (which I just admitted to scraping from three plates!) contains numerous bottled Asian sauces, which are notoriously high in sodium. I reduced the soy sauce, Thai chili sauce and brown sugar from the original recipe, but my version still contains 2,700mg sodium (!!!) and 49g of sugar per serving. That’s more sodium than you should have in an entire day! I’m not saying “don’t eat these, ever” – they’re delicious, I’m all about splurging on delicious, unhealthy food now and then. I’m just saying that without some serious modification, you aren’t going to want these to become a dinnertime staple.
Sweet and Sour Pomegranate Thai Chicken Enchiladas
Adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 cup sweet thai chili sauce
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 3/4 cup pomegranate juice
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger paste (or grated fresh ginger)
Enchiladas
- 1 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
- 1 red pepper, sliced thin
- 1 orange pepper, sliced thin
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 10 medium flour tortillas
- 1 medium avocado
- 1 cup pomegranate arils
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened slightly. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In the meantime, lightly sauté peppers. In a large mixing bowl, combine the shredded chicken, peppers, and half of the mozzarella. When the sauce is done pour in about 3/4 cup or just enough to coat the chicken and make it saucy. Mix well to coat.
- Now spoon a little of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla, tuck and roll, placing the tortilla seem side down into the baking dish. Pour and spread the rest of the sauce over top of the enchiladas and top with the remaining mozzarella.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and top with diced avocado and pomegranate arils.
Serve 5
