Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Grilled Enchilada Pizza

Remember those two chickens I smoked with hickory and cherry wood recently?


I smoked one intentionally for leftovers, based on the "grill once, eat twice" mantra that we learned at KingsfordU.  It saves time and money for dinner and lunch on Monday!

If it's Sunday and your grilling 4 burgers for the family, thrown on a few extra to have for lunches on Monday.  If you're cooking one chicken, you might as well cook two and use the second for other meals.  Chickens are especially handy because there are so many recipes call for a cup or two of cooked chicken. 

Here is one of the meals I made from the smoked chicken. 
Kind of messy but really good!

Grilled Enchilada Pizza
Serves: 3 pizzas (3-4 servings or 12 appetizer portions)
Source:  www.nibblemethis.com

6 ea flour tortilla (fajita size)
1 can kidney beans
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup smoked chicken, diced
3/4 cup smoked white cheddar cheese, shredded (you can sub any cheese you like)
1/4 cup black olives, sliced
1 Tbsp jalapeno, finely diced
1 Tbsp oregano, fresh chopped
3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 
2 Tbsp cotija cheese

Bring the kidney beans and garlic to a boil, reduce heat and then simmer for 15 minutes.  Drain, season with 1/2 tsp of salt, and mash together with a large fork or potato masher.

Preheat grill to 350-400f.  Grill 3 of the tortilla's on BOTH sides until browned and they should be somewhat crispy stiff.  If you hold them up sideways and they don't bend too much, they are ready. 

Grill the other three tortillas one ONE side.

Place the three ONE sided tortillas grilled side up and top each with 1/3rd of the bean/garlic mixture.  Use a spoon to spread it out to the edges of the tortillas.

Top each with 1/3rd of the diced chicken, 1/4 cup smoked white cheddar, and 1 ounce of enchilada sauce.

Place the remaining three tortillas on top.  The trick I learned between the first and second batch is that your tortillas will bend into a concave shape when you are first grilling them by themselves.  The first batch, I had the concave or curved side facing up, which kept all the ingredients bowled up.  The second time I did it concave side down and that worked better because the cheeses and warm sauce melting outwards, giving an even coating of gooey good stuff (technical food term there...). 
See how the first batch was bending upward? 

Top each with 1/3rd of the black olives, 1 tsp each diced jalapeno, 1 teaspoon each of oregano, 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese and an ounce of enchilada sauce.

Cut the heat back on the grill to 300f.  Your grill grates will still be hot enough to toast that bottom tortilla (that's why you left one side ungrilled) but it will take long enough that the cheeses will melt on top, about 3-4 minutes.  For a Big Green Egg, you can just shut it down and let the carry over heat of the Egg finish it off.

Sprinkle with some cotija cheese, quarter each pizza with a pizza cutter and serve.


These disappeared quickly!