Portable Enchiladas, You Say?

One of my current obsessions is food, other than muffins, made in a muffin tin. Sometimes it really is the little things! First of all, let's face it...mini-meals are cute. Secondly, kids like them because they're easy to eat & less messy, which we moms love too! Finally, you can make a lot of them, freeze what you don't eat, then reheat them as needed, so leftovers & snacks are a breeze! There really is no down side to making meals this way, in fact, check out this awesome blog with an entire section devoted to muffin tin meals. I used three of the recipes last week & they were all great!

So....on to tonight's dinner! I've made muffin tin tacos before, and they're great, but this week I started wondering if I could do muffin tin chicken enchiladas...why not? They actually turned out really good & I've got plenty left over to put in the freezer. This recipe makes 24 mini-enchiladas, and they would also make great party appetizers or game day snacks!

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 C water
3 packages taco seasoning
24 flour tortillas (soft taco size)
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 package queso fresco, crumbled (in the Mexican food section of grocery store)

DIRECTIONS:
The chicken breasts can either be cooked for several hours in the crock pot, or you can boil them on the stove, whichever you prefer. I used the stove this time.
Put 6 C of water in a large pot, mix in all 3 packages of taco seasoning & the 2 lbs. of chicken breasts, then bring to a boil. Turn down to medium-low & let simmer for 1 1/2 hours. This lets the chicken get really tender so it just falls apart. *FYI, this shredded chicken is AWESOME for chicken tacos, taquitos & quesadillas...I use it all the time & it's a no-fail!

While the chicken is cooking, get your tortillas ready! They'll need to be cut down a little to fit into the muffin tin, roughly a 5" diameter circle works fine. I just use a bowl that's roughly 5" across, then cut around it (you can do 4-5 tortillas at a time with a decent knife).

After you get all 24 circles cut, you'll need to soften them in the microwave. Get a clean dishtowel wet, wring it out, then you can wrap 4 circles at a time in it & microwave for 1 minute. After nuking each batch of 4, put them in the muffin tin as shown.

When the chicken is done, use a couple of forks to shred it into a bowl, then discard most of the leftover juice (you can use a few TBS of the juice to keep the chicken moist, but not too much, or your tortillas will get mushy). Distribute shredded chicken evenly among the 24 tortilla cups, then top each one with a spoonful of enchilada sauce & some crumbled queso fresco.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. Leftover enchiladas can be wrapped & put in a plastic bag in the freezer for reheating later- the microwave works great for that:)

Enjoy!