I made High Protein Enchiladas for a Busy Week.

0:00 I had a couple of busy days last week,

0:01 so I made these high protein suburban mom style enchiladas verde.

0:06 For a plate of two, you're looking at 670 calories and 70 grams of protein,

0:11 so they are the perfect meal to prep ahead,

0:13 cook in the oven, and store in the fridge.

0:15 And this might be weird, but these enchiladas are so good,

0:18 I was sneaking bites from them cold straight

0:20 from the fridge without needing to heat them up.

0:23 So, in this video, I'm going to show you how I quickly prep the chicken,

0:26 the exact amounts I add to each tortilla,

0:28 and how to upgrade your store-bought enchilada sauce.

0:39 Okay, so I've got all the ingredients we need laid out in front of me,

0:42 and I think one of the most underrated

0:44 techniques for busy home cooks is upgrading store-bought ingredients,

0:48 which is exactly what we're going to be doing with our sauce.

0:51 So, I'm starting with a store-bought enchilada sauce,

0:54 but then boosting it with a couple

0:55 of roasted peppers and other fresh ingredients.

0:58 So, let me show you how to make it

0:59 and the ingredients that I'll be adding to it,

1:01 then I'll meet you back here and explain the difference in the flavor.

1:05 Okay, let's rip through the sauce.

1:07 So, to start, I've got one poblano and one

1:09 Anaheim pepper that I'm just placing on a baking sheet,

1:12 and to that, I give them a light drizzle of oil and a sprinkle of salt,

1:15 which I'm going to rub over the exterior,

1:17 which is going to help them roast a bit more evenly in the oven.

1:20 So, I slid those peppers underneath the broiler on low

1:23 and just let them start to roast for a few minutes.

1:26 You don't want to go too far away, but while that's going,

1:28 I grabbed out the blender and prepped the other ingredients,

1:31 which is simply opening up the two cans of green enchilada

1:34 sauce and lopping off about a quarter of a red onion.

1:37 Now, back at the broiler, once I start to see some browning,

1:40 I just flip it over and then let it go for another minute or two

1:43 before completely pulling that out and tossing

1:45 them into a container to let them steam.

1:48 And this steaming step is going to help loosen

1:50 that skin so it peels off a bit easier.

1:52 And as you'll see, just a minute or two later,

1:55 that outer skin should be noticeably wrinkly like

1:57 this, and then you can just go ahead and remove it.

2:00 Once that skin is removed, we're ready to finish the sauce in the blender.

2:04 So first, I added the two cans

2:05 of store-bought enchilada sauce followed by the red onion,

2:08 the roasted poblano, the roasted Anaheim, a handful of cilantro,

2:12 as well as a small sprinkle of cumin

2:14 seeds before blending that all together until it's smooth.

2:18 And just like that, we should have a sauce

2:19 that should taste way more alive than straight from the can,

2:22 but let's actually give them a taste test.

2:25 So right here I have a little sample of the original sauce that I saved,

2:28 so let's give it a taste and then see how

2:30 big of an upgrade the version that I made actually is.

2:34 This is good.

2:35 It's totally passable.

2:36 You can also just kind of tell it's like it's got that canned vibe to it.

2:40 Completely missing out on a lot of freshness,

2:42 which is what we added into this version.

2:46 So let's give it a taste.

2:49 Mhm.

2:49 Right away you get that top freshness from the bite of that red onion,

2:53 the cilantro in there,

2:54 and then you kind of get those rounded notes of the roasted peppers,

2:58 as well as the cumin totally comes through as well.

3:00 This is a good example where a lot of times cooking feels like it's framed

3:04 as you either have to go completely from scratch

3:06 or just store-buy or order takeout or something,

3:09 but I think for most home cooks really the big value is trying to find

3:13 these situations where you can maybe upgrade a store-bought

3:16 component to get a big upgrade in flavor, which I think is what we did here.

3:21 So now that we have our sauce done, all we got to do is quickly make some garlic

3:25 cumin chicken and then we'll go ahead and assemble our enchiladas.

3:28 So I'll meet you back here when we're ready to assemble.

3:32 This is probably the easiest way that I know how

3:34 to cook a big batch of tender chicken pieces all at once.

3:37 So to start, I grabbed out the chicken breast and the key here

3:39 is you want to slice across the grain and as thinly as possible.

3:43 Just use a sharp knife and take your time.

3:45 These thin slices are going to cook really

3:47 fast and give us plenty of room for browning.

3:50 Then once everything is sliced, I set a bowl over a scale and added the chicken.

3:53 And for the salt, I did 1% by weight of the meat, so 7 g in my case.

3:58 Then, from there, I added an 8-g sprinkle of cumin

4:01 seed and an 8-g sprinkle of some dried minced garlic,

4:03 which I like for kind of its punchier texture.

4:06 Lastly, I finished with a 15-g drizzle of oil before mixing everything together,

4:10 and we are ready to cook.

4:12 So, at the stove, I preheated my griddle to 475° on both sides,

4:16 then just dumped that chicken out and spread it out with a spatula.

4:19 For we're going to leave it alone to cook hard on one side.

4:23 And while that's going, it's always good to take this minute or two to clean

4:26 up the chicken bowl and the cutting board from earlier.

4:29 Now, back at the stove,

4:30 you can see the chicken is over halfway cooked through on top,

4:33 which is the cue to kind of flip it and then

4:34 just let it cook for another minute or two, and that's it.

4:37 All the chicken is nicely seasoned and browned on one

4:40 side and ready to be filled into our tortillas.

4:44 Okay, so we've got our chicken and our sauce done,

4:46 and I will say this chicken alone,

4:48 just thinly sliced, cooks super fast, such a great item to quickly meal prep.

4:52 Use it for, you know, tacos, obviously, enchiladas like we're doing today,

4:55 but sandwiches, salads, anything like that, really, really good item.

5:00 Mhm.

5:00 Really tender and flavorful.

5:01 But anyway, now what we got to do is assemble,

5:03 so I'm going to use some lower-carb tortillas,

5:05 and then I've got to figure out how much cheese we can use.

5:08 I will weigh everything out, so if you guys want to follow this exactly,

5:11 you can have an accurate calorie count.

5:13 So, let me assemble these, and then I'll

5:14 meet you back here for our final taste test,

5:17 which is probably going to be later tonight.

5:19 To assemble, I first poured enchilada sauce into the bottom of my baking dish,

5:23 then also sliced up pieces of Monterey Jack that I'm going to place

5:26 in the center of these, and these each weighed about 18 g.

5:30 So, to each tortilla, I start by adding 80 g of the cooked chicken breast,

5:34 followed by a small spoonful of the enchilada sauce,

5:37 and that slice of cheese right over the top before wrapping those up tight.

5:41 And then you just keep on going.

5:43 Add the chicken down, the spoonful of sauce, slice of cheese, and wrap it up.

5:47 And while I finish these, let me tell you about the Cookwell app.

5:51 So, we launched the Cookwell app a couple of months ago,

5:53 and people have been wondering kind of what's

5:55 the difference between the app and the website.

5:57 So, I thought I would just show you how I

5:59 use the Cookwell app to make the recipe for this video.

6:02 So, I'm going to flip it up on screen for you guys.

6:05 And essentially, what I did is I knew we had um an enchilada recipe,

6:10 but I wanted to make a high-protein version.

6:11 So, I went to the recipe that we had we

6:14 have the new one for this video currently on there, so that's at the bottom.

6:17 But, I clicked into it,

6:18 and then I can actually edit this, and we're calling these kind of remixes.

6:22 So, what I did is just remove the chicken thighs

6:25 and kind of added chicken breast um to swap out,

6:29 you know, the higher-protein version.

6:31 Then, for what did I else do?

6:33 Oh, yeah, the Anaheim peppers I kind of changed to one,

6:37 and then I'm going to add in the store-bought enchilada sauce, as well.

6:46 Enchilada sauce.

6:49 And then, I just left a note

6:50 to in the flour tortillas to buy the low-cal/ carb version.

6:56 And then, just kind of added this as a custom recipe.

7:00 Now, again, where you can pick this up again

7:02 though is um when we get to our grocery shopping.

7:08 So, I'm going to go into the profile now,

7:13 and again, now I have it double in here,

7:15 but I can click on the three dots and add this to my grocery list.

7:18 So, it's going to pop up the grocery list item,

7:20 and then I can quickly see kind of what I have.

7:22 So, garlic salt, mayonnaise, I don't need any of that.

7:25 I know I need the chicken breast,

7:26 I know I need the Anaheim peppers, and the poblano peppers.

7:28 All the other stuff is just um pantry items other than the enchilada sauce.

7:33 Then, I need those flour tortillas, and when I filmed it,

7:36 I think I needed Monterey Jack cheese.

7:38 So, these are now going to go into we'll

7:40 pop it into a new list and call it done.

7:45 And then as you can see these items should now all be in my grocery list.

7:51 And they're kind of tagged with that little icon to show

7:54 when you are shopping what recipe user you use them for.

7:57 And then that's really it.

7:59 So if we look back at my planner from Monday when I made this dish,

8:02 you can see I have the recipe in there and then I just left

8:05 a little note kind of a little to-do

8:06 for myself for enchilada filling and grocery shopping.

8:09 So that's just one example of all the functionality that's built

8:11 in the app that obviously you can't do from the website.

8:15 The website is purely just if you want to read

8:17 the recipe and make it and follow it exactly.

8:19 Um but the Cookwell app is an entire home cooking system.

8:22 That's really what we're trying to build.

8:24 So if you guys want to check this out

8:25 it is linked down below in all the recent videos

8:27 as well as all the recipes we're making on this channel

8:30 are now going to be loaded up in here.

8:31 But as you can see there's a lot

8:32 more functionality than just a website can offer.

8:35 So now let's get back to finishing the enchiladas and doing our taste test.

8:40 Back at our enchiladas,

8:41 once all the tortillas were rolled up I had seven in total

8:43 and I placed them seam side down into the pan with the enchilada sauce.

8:47 I was able to fit five into this first pan

8:50 then just cover it up with more sauce over the top.

8:53 You can use as much or as little

8:55 as you want depending on your saucy preferences.

8:58 I also added another 30 g of cheese over the entire thing and then

9:01 the other two I placed onto just a mini sheet tray and did the same thing.

9:05 And now we have meals for the next couple of days.

9:08 So to bake these just cover with aluminum foil and place

9:11 in a 375° oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.

9:14 Then for the last 5 minutes or so I like to throw on the broiler

9:17 to get a little browning on the cheese and get that sauce bubbling.

9:21 And once they're cooked you can either let them

9:23 cool and pop the whole thing in the fridge,

9:25 but if you are eating them fresh I like adding

9:26 a little diced onion and fresh cilantro over the top.

9:30 And here you're going to see me reheating the tray

9:32 of two at like 7:30 at night for our taste test.

9:35 And once I cut into these I mean, you can see it.

9:37 It's cheesy, chickeny, that salsa verde is going to really pop.

9:42 It's one of those sneaky high protein meals.

9:45 So, let's give them a taste.

9:47 Okay, time to get into this.

9:53 Mhm.

10:03 This right here is pure just happiness for me.

10:06 I mean, what a great dish to come home to.

10:09 Super flavorful, the sauce is just so good.

10:13 You get the chicken, the garlic, and the cumin comes really through.

10:16 Top with a little sour cream,

10:17 and I love that more bite of kind of the raw onion on top.

10:21 I mean, for being kind of a healthier,

10:23 high protein version, this absolutely hits the spot.

10:26 So, I'm going to crush the rest of this.

10:28 Recipe link will be down below,

10:29 as well as to the CookWell app if you guys want to check that out.

10:32 But, that's going to wrap it up for me in this one.

10:34 Let me know if you guys try this.

10:35 I will catch you all in the next one.

10:38 Peace, y'all.

10:42 Mhm.