Pheasant Enchiladas Verdes

Delicious and savory enchiladas with green tomatillo sauce.

Photo: Prebaked enchiladas verdes. Once baked the cheese will melt.

Like my chilaquiles recipe, this is another family heirloom. I have fond childhood memories of my mom working hard in the kitchen making these enchiladas for the family. For the most part they were made from tomatillo sauce, but at times she used mole which is a dark, rich, and spicy sauce popular in Mexico. (pronounced Mol-eh…not like the burrowing mammal that ruins gardens) Having grown up on a ranch in Hidalgo, Mexico my mom and her siblings were taught to make the tortillas from scratch including grinding up the dried corn to make the “masa.” Due to time I have opted to use the store bought corn tortillas. It’s not as a fresh but works well.   I also included an optional low carb flour tortilla for those who are counting carbs like me.

The recipe is similar to chilaquiles in terms of preparing the tomatillo sauce and the meat. Assembly of the enchiladas are different though.

I use pheasant but you can use any other meat including grouse, chucker, Hungarian partridge, chicken, even pulled pork, or shredded beef. Your choice. Let’s get started!

Pheasant Enchiladas Verdes

Ingredients:

• 2-3lbs tomatillos (husks removed)

• 1 Jalapeno pepper or Serrano. (2 if you like it hot)

• 1 bunch of cilantro-chopped. If possible try not to chop much of the stems, only the cilantro leaves. The stems will give off a more bitter taste. A few stems won’t make a big deal.

• 1 red onion diced

• 4 garlic cloves minced

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 cups of shredded pheasant or chicken if you don’t have pheasant.

• 1 pack of shredded quesadilla or mozzarella cheese (Mozzarella is our preference).

• 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth

• ½ cup Vegetable or Canola oil. (Optional: Lard or Coconut oil)

• 1 pack of corn tortillas. They usually come in a pack of 40. You can freeze what you don’t use.

• 1 pack of low carb flour tortillas (If doing a low carb option)

• Salt and Pepper to taste

  
  

Directions:

Directions: (pheasant meat and sauce prep is the same as the chilaquiles)

A day before, put pheasant breast and/ or hind quarters (or chicken)  in a crock pot with ½ of the diced onion, 2 of the garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Pour 4 cups of chicken broth (make sure meat is covered in broth) and heat on low for 8 hours. Once pheasant is cooked, let cool, shred meat, and reserve the stock for later.

Tomatillo Sauce

Remove the husks from the tomatillos, wash and put in a soup pan filled with water. Add jalapeno or Serrano pepper and a few cilantro leaves. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes or until tomatillos are soft but not mushy.  Let cool. You can pour cool water in to help cool the process.

While tomatillos are cooking, dice up the rest onion, garlic and cilantro. Blend these with a cup of reserved broth. Once this is blended together add the cooked tomatillos, peppers, salt/pepper,  and a cup of reserved pheasant or chicken stock. You may add more stock as needed. If it’s too tart you can blend a teaspoon of sugar to it. If you want to make the tomatillo sauce vegetarian, use vegetable broth.

Once sauce is all blended, in a deep sautee pan, pour the tablespoon of oil and let heat. Add 2 tablespoons of diced onion and sautee until onion is translucent but not burnt. Slowly, pour tomatillos sauce and heat up. It should be hot but not boiling.  Once it is heated remove from stove.

Preparing the enchiladas

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9.25x 13.25 glass casserole dish and put some tomatillo sauce on the bottom. 

This is where chilaquiles and enchiladas differ.

Heat ¼ of vegetable oil in a frying pan until hot. I set it to low medium. Take a corn tortilla and place it in the hot oil to fry for a few seconds and the flip over for another few seconds just to coat the tortilla with the hot oil. Please use tongs to do this. Dip the oiled tortilla in the sautee pan with tomatillo sauce and quickly place it flat in the glass casserole dish. Make sure the tortilla is not soggy otherwise it will fall apart. I’ve learned that this takes practice at first.   Add some of the shredded pheasant, cheese and a little tomatillo sauce on the tortilla. Roll up the filled tortilla and set it neatly in the dish seam down. Continue to do this for as many enchiladas as you want filling the dish with a nice layered row of rolled up filled tortillas. This process can take a while especially with coating the tortilla in hot oil. To speed things up, I sometimes coat a few tortillas with oil and tomatillo sauce and place them in the glass dish and then start filling and rolling them up.  Please note that if you are using low carb flour tortillas, there is no need to fry them in the oil unless you want to. Simply coat them with tomatillo sauce, place in the glass casserole dish, add the filling, and roll them up.  Pour extra tomatillo sauce over the enchiladas making sure they are nice and coated and then top with cheese.  You can save extra tomatillo sauce to pour over enchiladas later or to have with chips.  Cover dish with tin foil and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes-enough to warm them up and melt the cheese.  Remove from oven and serve immediately with sour cream, avocado, hot sauce, or whatever toppings you want. You can also serve rice and beans on the side.  Enjoy!

Brenda Mizenko

Cedars Point Kennel

Summerset, SD

206-200-3454

www.cedarspointkennel.com

cedarspoint@outlook.com

Brenda Mizenko is the co-owner of Cedars Point Kennel in Summerset, SD. She is an elementary school teacher in Rapid City, SD and loves making new wild game dishes.