Chicken Enchiladas, by Elizabeth Falkner

A couple days ago I was at Bristol Farms in Santa Monica because I needed to get a pork tenderloin for their dinner. My plan was to rub it with a blend of spices to give it a little hint of Mexican flavors. A rub of cumin, oregano, garlic powder, coriander, chili powder, salt and pepper with a little olive oil to marinate for a good twenty minutes before cooking.

I walked by a refrigerated island in the deli section that had tubs of pulled roasted chicken, which I would normally ignore because if I am going to do chicken, I would roast it or cook it myself. But there was a lot of it, so I bought a tub and thought why not? I could do a lot of things with that pre-roasted chicken. Enchiladas immediately came to mind, as well as a Cobb salad, and maybe some chicken pad Thai or other asian noodle dish. I would have to see if more people were coming over this week for dinner and think on it more.

Anyway, back to the pork dish. I quartered and sliced some Brussels sprouts and sautéed them with bacon and shallot, deglazed with a little apple cider vinegar. It was only going to be Rosie for dinner I found out, so I really didn’t need to cook the whole pork tenderloin. I decided to only cook one third of it and keep the rest of it for the next day or so to grill most likely for another dish. Since it was only her, I decided not to turn on the grill and to pan roast the three-inch piece of pork and baste it after searing on the three sides with just a touch of butter, a clove of garlic and thyme and let it rest for a good few minutes.

I had a small corn tamale leftover from the weekend so I heated it in the microwave for twenty seconds, and then 20 more seconds, and took it out of the husk to set on a plate on top of small spoonful of sour cream I smeared across that plate. I cut the pork into four slices and leaned and fanned them up against the tamale. Spooned the Brussels and bacon next to the pork and finished with a squeeze of lime, some pickled tomato relish and leaves of cilantro.

The next day, I decided to grill that pork and baste it with a sugar, lime and fish sauce and slice very thin and wow, was that good! I served this over blanched and grilled broccoli rabe, sautéed carrot and scallion along with ginger and garlic and tossed with noodles with sesame-peanut sauce with lots of ginger in it.

So, the chicken? I served steak yesterday, so I prepped for today. I caramelized some onions and kale and mixed with the shredded chicken which I stuffed in tortillas tucked in with red sauce for the enchiladas I am serving tonight.