Chicken Enchiladas & Apple Crisp

Many, many years ago I was at my friend's apartment and she made this recipe.  I absolutely loved and saved it.  I've made it several times over the years.  Every once in awhile I have a craving for it and tonight was one of those nights.  It's also a bonus that everyone in my house loves it!  There's always leftover for lunch the next day too.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

2-4 tbsp butter

4-6 chicken breasts, chopped

1 - 1-1/2 cups salsa

1 pkg (125g) cream cheese

2 cups grated cheese (I like a mixture of cheddar, mozzarella and asiago)

6 large flour tortillas

Directions:

1. Chop chicken into cubes and fry on stove in butter until it is no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside in a bowl.

2. Cook and stir onion in butter over medium heat for 2-3 minus until softened.  Stir in cooked onion, about 2/3 cup salsa, and cream cheese.  Cook until thoroughly heated.

3. Stir in 1 cup grated cheese.

4. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture in the centre of each tortilla.  Roll and place seam side down in large (13x9") baking dish.  Top with remaining salsa and cheddar cheese.

5. Bake in preheated 350F oven for 15 minutes.

Cooking the chicken cubes.

Adding in the salsa and cream cheese.

Snapping a picture just before I chow down!

Saving some leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

And now onto dessert - my favourite part of any meal!

Apple Crisp

The great thing about this recipe, is that you can make a large batch and portion it out to freeze.  If you are expecting a large crowd, put this in a large dish and make one portion.  But if you want to have some on hand to give to family or friends or save for another day, then you can do that as well.

Today I made this into 3-8x8" serving dishes.  One went to our neighbour, the other is being frozen for a work function and the last one is the dessert tonight.  My apple crisp recipes have evolved over the years, but this time the crumble part is true to a Barefoot Contessa recipe.

Ingredients:
10 apples, peeled, cored and sliced (fairly thinly)
1/2 cup sugar
the juice of one lemon

2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

For the topping:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cold unsalted butter, diced


Directions:

1. If you are making a large dish, grease a 9x14" dish.  If you are making smaller portions, grease 3 8x8" dishes.

2. Peel, core and cut the apples into slices.  Combine the apples, lemon juice, sugar and spices.  Pour into the dish.  (I actually like to divide the apples into the three dishes and then squeeze the lemon juice over top.  I then mix the rest of the ingredients and evenly sprinkle it over each dish and toss.)

3. For the topping: Combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, butter in the bowl of stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is small.  Scatter evenly over the apples.

4. If you are baking immediately, bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes, until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly.  Serve warm.  (Consider putting a sheet pan underneath for overflow if your dish is really full.)  If you are freezing, cover in foil and write the instructions on top.  Place in the freezer.  If you are baking one large dish, you will probably have to increase the baking time to 60 minutes.

5. Baking from frozen?  Thaw and bake uncovered at 350F for 45 minutes.

Prepping the apples in their foil dishes.

Check out the delicious crumble topping.

The apple crisp all bubbly and brown!

"It's so yummy mommy!"

And of course, we have to add Birthday Cake Oreo Ice Cream on top!

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

I love apple crisp - it is one of those easy comfort foods you can bake up in a matter of minutes.  I even have my little cheats - using oatmeal cookie mix mixed with cinnamon and a touch of brown sugar as my topping drizzled with maple syrup and corn syrup.

But my easy quick go to dessert is no longer possible on my gluten free diet.  So I went on a search for a gluten free version.  I mostly found recipes that used "gluten free oats" but this was not going to be an option.  I thought about the quinoa flakes I had sitting in my cupboard with all the other "gluten free" flours I bought and thought I'd be able to mimic the oats by using them.  So I narrowed down my search some more - and here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

6 apples (I used Gala), peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice (to prevent browning)
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp tapioca or arrowroot starch
1 cup quinoa flakes
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup coconut oil (if you don't need to be dairy free, you can use butter - I find that it adds extra flavour.  For this recipe I used half butter and half coconut oil.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease the bottom and sides of an 8x11" baking dish.  Set aside.

2. Toss the sliced apples in a bowl with lemon juice.  Add the maple syrup and stir.  (At this point I like to sprinkle the apples with some brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to add some extra flavour.)  Dust with tapioca starch to coat the slices.  Pour the slices into the baking dish.

3. In a mixing bowl, combine the quinoa flakes, sorghum flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt and whisk to blend.  Add the coconut oil in pieces and cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter.  It should resemble a sandy mixture.

4. Spoon the mixture over top.  Drizzle with some maple syrup and dab with butter or coconut oil.

5. Bake in the center of the oven for about 20 minutes.  Cover loosely with foil paper and bake for another 20 minutes.  (Depending on the size of your slices, this could take longer.)  The apples should feel tender and the sides should be bubbling.

6. Allow to cool a bit before serving, but it is served best warm.

The results were pretty good. My husband and I definitely missed the bigger clumps/chunks that happen in the crisp when you use oats.  Maybe next time I would use more butter/coconut oil to make it a bit clumpier, but I think the size of the quinoa flakes are the main reason for this.  But for a gluten free version of apple crisp, you really can't go wrong.

The apples

The crumble part

The prepared crumble prior to baking.

The final product (well half of it!)