Chicken Enchilada

You can make the sauce ahead of time for these chicken enchiladas, served with coriander, avocado and soured cream. (optional)

Ingredients

For Enchilada Sauce..

1 large onions, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 c clove, crushed

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried oregano  

1 tsp chilli power

½ tsp ground cumin

500g/1lb 2oz passata  

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cider vinegar

salt and freshly ground black pepper

For Enchiladas

2 onions, sliced

I red peppers, (optional) deseeded and sliced

1 yellow pepper, (optional) deseeded and sliced

3 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Chicken, cut into thin strips

400g/14oz red kidney beans, drained and rinsed 

8 gluten-free tortilla

100g/3½oz vegan cheddar, grated

A handful of Basil, to make pesto (optional)

Method

Cheese, Pesto and Gluten-Free, I made my own pesto sauce after reading the ingredients I realised it had nuts couldn’t be used due to nuts.

Start by making the enchilada sauce. Put the onion into a medium saucepan with the olive oil and cook over a low-medium heat for 7–8 minutes, or until soft and just starting to brown at the edges. 

Add the crushed garlic and cook for a further minute. Add the smoked paprika, dried oregano, chilli powder and ground cumin, mix well and cook for a further 30 seconds.

Add the passata, brown sugar and vinegar to the pan, season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook over a low–medium heat for 20 minutes until thickened slightly. Remove from the heat and blend until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C/Gas 5.

For the enchilada, heat half of the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the sliced onions and peppers and cook over a medium heat for about 3 minutes, or until just tender and starting to caramelise at the edges. Add the garlic and red chilli and cook for a further 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and set aside.

und the filling into cigars and arrange neatly and snuggly in an ovenproof dish (roughly 20 x 30cm/8x 12in). Spoon the remaining enchilada sauce over the top and scatter with grated cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is piping hot and the cheese bubbling, melted and golden-brown.