Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas with Spanish Rice

This blog is technically 1 day late - we made this for dinner last night, but just didn't get around to posting because we had some friends over.  As discussed earlier - most of our meals are usually a one dish thing - but pulled out a couple extra pans for this one.

My typical version of enchiladas consists of some beef cooked in taco seasoning, rolled up in a tortilla with some sauce & cheese on top.  I decided to try out a new filling:

• Saute 1/2 onion with a teaspoon full of minced garlic in some olive oil in a skillet pan
• Add 1 1/2 lbs of cubed chicken breast - cook through.
• Stir in 1 can black beans, 1 small can of green chiles, and about 1/2 cup of salsa.
• Cook until the sauce has thickened.  
• Use mixture to fill corn tortillas and place into a baking pan that has 1/2 can of enchilada sauce in the bottom.
• Side note: I typically get frustrated trying to roll up the small corn tortillas into a roll because they aren't very pliable and they always break on me, so my enchiladas turn out to be a glorified casserole. I was determined to have semi-presentable enchiladas so I microwaved the tortillas for about 30 sec to get them soft, and they rolled like a dream after being filled.
• Top the rolled tortillas with the rest of the enchilada sauce, top with some monterey jack cheese and bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

These turned out really tasty and very filling - and of course you can spice it up to taste.

Spanish rice:

Typically I buy the Betty Crocker Spanish Rice in a bag and just add water.  My family used to have this as a side dish with our taco night.  But tonight I had the time and courage to attempt to make my own.

In a saucepan:

• The other half of the onion, touch of oil, spoon of garlic browned with 2 cups of rice (I used brown whole grain rice, because that's what I had in my pantry)
• Keep stirring around for a few minutes until the rice gets a bit crispy and the onion cooks up.
• Stir in a heaping teaspoon of tomato paste, a few shakes of dried oregano and a touch of salt.
• Use chicken stock as a substitute for the amount of water prescribed for the rice package directions. (For 2 cups of brown rice, I used 5 cups of chicken stock)
• At this stage I also added a few shakes of Tapatio because I knew it would need a bit more jazz.
• Cover and cook for however long the package of rice says (I think I ended up cooking it for about 40-45 minutes.

Overall the rice turned out "Ok" per review of David.  It was pretty moist, and perhaps needed to cook with a bit less liquid.  The flavors were decent, I should have added something more to make it a bit more "Spanish" rather than just tomato flavored moist rice.  But - there's always another day.