Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Smoked Pork and Hatch Green Chile Enchiladas


Don't you love the aroma of fresh chiles roasting over a fire?  I have a Pavlovic response to it, in literal terms of the word.  One day soon I want to attend a big chile festival, where hundreds of chiles are being tossed and roasted in drums, just so I can overdose on that smell.

Recently, we ordered a batch of fresh Hatch green chiles from The Hatch Green Chile Store.  A friend of ours, Kirk of AlbuKirky Seasonings, just happened to order us some fire roasted Hatch green chiles as a surprise from the same store...at the same time.  So picture me confused when I get two shipments a day apart.  I thought Alexis had accidentally ordered the fire roasted ones when she was first browsing the site while she insisted she didn't.  Fortunately Kirk let us in on his secret and Alexis got to say "I told you so".  I hate it when she's always right ;)

You can't have too many green chiles, in my experience.  They disappear quickly into soups, sauces, on grilled meats, and on scramble eggs and - well about anything.  I have fire roasted about half and the other half I dehydrated to use to make some green chile rubs.



When I made my Hatch Green Chile Sauce and Tex-Mex smoked pork in the previous two posts, I made it with this idea in mind - to make a green chile enchilada sauce for smoked pork enchiladas that are fire roasted on the kamado grill.


Smoked Pork and Hatch Green Chile Enchiladas
www.nibblemethis.com
Makes:  4 servings

Ingredients
  • 2 cups chopped TexMex Smoked Pork
  • 8 corn tortillas
  • 4 ounces pepper jack cheese cut into 8 slices about 1" x 4" 
  • 1/2 cup shredded colby jack cheese 
  • Garnish ideas:  cilantro, cotija cheese, Mexican crema, green onions
For The Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
 Instructions
  1. Make the Enchilada Sauce:  Preheat a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat.  Add the Hatch Green Chile Sauce, heavy cream, and Albukirky Casa Seasoning and stir together. Reduce heat to low and maintain sauce warm but below a simmer.  (Note:  You will add the Mexican crema later.)
  2. Set up your grill for indirect heat and preheat to 375 F. 
  3. Lightly grease a half sized foil steam pan (or a medium sized casserole dish). Ladle enough of the Green Chile Enchilada Sauce to LIGHTLY coat the bottom of the pan, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup. 
  4. Assemble the Enchiladas:  Dip a tortilla in the warm enchilada sauce until warm and flexible, about 6-7 seconds.  Remove and place on a flat surface.  Place a piece of cheese down the middle and top evenly with 1/4 cup of the chopped smoked pork.  Roll up edges and place seam side down in the foil pan.  Repeat with remaining tortillas.  
  5. Fold the Mexican crema into the remaining sauce.  Taste for seasoning and add a little salt if needed.  Ladle enough of the sauce to lightly cover the tops of the enchiladas.  Reserve the remaining sauce and keep warm over very low heat.
  6. Cover the pan with foil and place on the grill, lid closed, for 20 minutes.    
  7. Carefully remove the pan from the grill and remove the cover.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup shredded colby jack cheese. Return pan, uncovered, to the grill.  Close the grill lid and cook until the tops are golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.  
  8. Remove from the grill, drizzle the remaining sauce over the middle of the enchiladas and serve.
For the pork, I made my Tex-Mex style smoked pork butt, which is super easy and has a good flavor profile for using in nachos, tacos, and enchiladas. But if you don't want to bother with smoking your own pork, you can just buy some pulled pork from the grocery store or a BBQ joint as long as it isn't drowned in BBQ sauce.


Silicone tipped tongs like this makes shuttling the tortillas in and out of the warm sauce easier without tearing the softened tortillas.  Note:  In this picture we were just warming the tortillas in warmed cream that we added to the sauce later.  The next time we just did it all together as written in the recipe.  Both ways seem to work just fine.



Tex-Mex pork
Soaking the tortillas first makes them pliable so they roll without breaking.


8 fit perfectly in a half steam pan but you can use a casserole dish if you are so inclined.


Tex-Mex Pork, green chile sauce
I think this sauce would also be great with cilantro added into it but my family doesn't like cilantro so I skipped it this time.


indirect, BGE, Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, Vision, Primo, Grill Dome
Indirect set up for a kamado grill.  This time I am using The Raiser (Innovations by Chance), a pizza stone, and my favorite Craycort cast iron grate.
Then the pan goes right over the pizza stone/heat deflector for even, indirect fire roasting.

Indirect set up if you are using a gas grill.  Notice only the far right burner is on.  Grill lid would be closed while grilling with this set up, I just have it open for the example on my Char-Broil Gourmet TRU-Infrared.


Indirect set up if you are using a kettle style charcoal grill.  The pan shown just keeps the coal to the sides.  The enchilada pan goes on the cooking grate directly above the lower pan and then you shut the grill lid.

The kamado grill makes it easy to hold my temp of 375°F once it is stablized.

Big Green Egg roasting


It is finished when the edges get a little crispy.



These were so good that we made them twice in a week.  The green chile rice that we served with them was just basic rice pilaf with onions with 1/4 cup of my hatch green chile sauce substituted for some of the stock I normally use.

[FTC Standard Disclaimer] I received no compensation for this post and paid full price for our hatch chiles from The Hatch Chile Store.