Pork Enchiladas

I am a big fan of cooking once and getting two or three meals out of it.  I would rather spend a little time a couple days a week cooking for real and then using what I have previously cooked (and frozen in my handy quart sized bags) in another dish or as a repeat of what I originally cooked.  These pork enchiladas are a twist on my chicken enchiladas.  They were very well received at a church activity and again the next week when I cooked them for us to have as a family.


The biggest perk to this recipe is that I let the dutch oven do the work for me.  I throw everything in, cook it low and slow, and then only spend 20 minutes or so assembling the dish.  I will tell you how I made this dish but please remember that you can tone it back if you think it will be too spicy for you.  I should note that my chili peppers and jalapenos from my garden were especially hot this year.  

The two major players of this show are the tasty cheese and the blended tortillas.  I happened on the some time ago at the grocery and have been using them ever since.  For the folks that swear they hate corn tortillas (my mother), this is a happy medium.  And the cheese is heavenly.  I use it on everything.  Everything.  

Ingredients:

1 bag queso chihuahua
1 package corn/flour blend tortillas
1 block Mexican white cheese dip
1 16 ounce jar salsa verde
1/2 jar of your favorite salsa (I used the last of the tomatoes from my garden but salsa does the trick too)
1 diced jalapeno
1/2 diced chili pepper
2 pork loins
1 tablespoon bacon grease
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon Mexican chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin

Directions:

1.  Melt your bacon grease (or oil if you don't have bacon grease, but you really should keep some around) in the dutch oven on medium high heat.  I used my small 4 quart one for this recipe.  Cut your pork loin in chunks and toss lightly in the flour.   Toss in the pork loin to sear on all sides.  This usually take about 3 or 4 minutes per side.   As you can see below, I just threw in the pork and tossed the flour, chili powder, and cumin right on top before stirring it all up to sear.

2.  Turn off the heat and add 1/2 the jar of salsa verde, salsa (or in my case the last of my tomatoes from the garden chopped in the food processor)  the jalapenos, and the chili pepper.  Cook at 275 degrees in the oven for 4 hours.  This can also be done in the crock pot if necessary.

3.  Remove the dutch oven from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes.  Using two forks, shred the meat.

I move batches of the meat over to a glass bowl to shred so that I don't
scratch up my dutch oven. 

4.  In the microwave, melt the block of Mexican white cheese and the other half of the jar of salsa verde.

5.  Set up an assembly line and start assembling the enchiladas.  Be sure to spray the pan with Pam before loading the enchiladas in there.

6.  Once they are loaded in the 9x13 pan, pour the melted cheese/salsa verde mix and spread evenly over the top of all of the enchiladas.  Sprinkle a little more shredded cheese over the top.

7.  Cook them in the oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.  I turn on the broiler at the end to let the cheese brown a little more.

8.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream and salsa.