honey lime chicken enchiladas

A big thanks to Pinterest for allowing me to find yet another delicious recipe via just cook already.  Again, I've adapted this recipe a bit, but let me tell you... these are FANTASTIC.  What makes it so delicious is the fact that you can taste every little ingredient that goes into it, and the honey and lime combination is so refreshing and great if you are craving something a little sweeter.  Also, take note that you will be marinating the cooked chicken for about 30 minutes to an hour before you can put the mixture into the tortillas and begin baking them.

Please excuse my poorly sliced avocados...I was in a hurry and hungry

Honey Lime Enchiladas

adapted from just cook already

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/3 cup honey
¼ cup lime juice (about 2 large limes)
1 tablespoon chili powder (or more if you like it spicy!)
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
6 low carb tortillas, medium (La Tortilla Factory)
2 cups of 2% Milk Mexican cheese blend, shredded
1 14-oz can of green enchilada sauce (mild or medium, to your taste)
½ cup of half and half cream
Nonstick cooking spray (like Pam Olive Oil spray)

1 SlimCado or regular avocado (we'll come back to this...)

Directions

When I began to cook to chicken, I added a little seasoning salt, chili powder, and threw in some limes to give the chicken a little something by itself.  You can eyeball most of this stuff, but just don't over do it with the chili powder...I have a tendency to do that, but what can I say, I love spicy.

Preheat the oven at 350 F.  Then, in a small bowl, combine honey, lime juice, chili powder and minced garlic.  Whisk together thoroughly and the pour the mixture over the chicken.  Cover, refrigerate, and let the chicken marinate for about 30 minutes to an hour before we add them to our tortillas.

Spray the sides and bottom of an 8x12 baking dish.  In a medium bowl combine the enchilada sauce and the half and half cream.  I chose to use the half and half, one, because I had some left over from the Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta sauce and two, I was trying to cut down the calories.  Considering you are combining it with a pre made enchilada sauce, it worked beautifully.  It was still creamy and had half the fat!  Add the remaining marinade mixture to the enchilada sauce and cream mixture, if you so desire.  Once that has been combined, pour about ½ cup of the mixture in the bottom of the oiled baking dish, making sure it covers the entire bottom with a thin layer of saucy goodness. 

Now we fill the tortillas.  Spoon in a large scoop of the chicken mixture to the center of each tortilla in a line.  Cover the chicken with a a large sprinkle of cheese and a spoonful of the enchilada sauce, then roll the tortilla up, folding the ends in so that none of the mixture leaks out.  Place the enchilada seam side down in the baking dish.  Repeat with the remaining chicken, cheese, sauce, and tortillas. Leave about a ½ cup to 1 cup of cheese aside to top off the enchiladas.  You can add more cheese if you wish, but I found this to be the perfect amount of cheesiness.  Then, pour the remaining enchilada sauce mixture over the top of all the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Cover the enchiladas with foil and bake the for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and starting to brown on top.  Now we get to the SlimCado garnish that I decided to go with instead of the cilantro.  Cilantro is the devil.  I believe we have been over this, but it is truly disgusting.  Use it if you love that awful stuff, but I prefer my delicious avocado.  

So, let's talk about this SlimCado thing.... I was a little wary of trying these monster avocados because, honestly, they just showed up in the grocery store one day and seemed a little too good to be true.  Half the fat?  Get real.  That's ridiculous.  Is this even a real food?  Well, here's what happened... I was perusing the produce section of my new grocery store and I could not for the life of me find any avocados except for these mutant things called "SlimCados".  I finally gave in a grabbed a couple and was on my way.  Of course I turned the corner and there were my sweet little regular, full fat avocados.  Long story short, I decided to get both kinds just so that I could give these monstrosities a try.  All in all, they did taste the same, but my only problem was that the outer edges were a little slimy once out of the skin.  Other than that, I found no issues.  I do think I will stick to my regular avocados though...