Cooking to infinity

This blog post was inspired by Crista Gray.  It would never have occured to me that anybody would be interested if she hadn't suggested it.  

I like to get the most out of things.  I don't buy new clothes when the old ones will do.  I wear my shoes until they fall apart.  I eat leftovers that are on the edge of inedible.  And I like to use up all of the usable parts of the things I cook.  Before I elaborate on that, I should explain how that relates to the title of this post.

There are few enough of you who read this (and bless you every one for caring).  Some of you, like me, grew up in Mendocino County.  I am sure you know the Pacific Lumber company.  It is hard to miss them up there in the land of pot and trees.  Perhaps you remember this lovely quote by Harry Merlo, LP's President and CEO during the eighties.  He said, ""We need everything that's out there. We don't log to a 10-inch top, or an 8-inch top, or a 6-inch top. We log to infinity. Because we need it all. It's ours. It's out there, and we need it all. Now."  He meant they don't stop with the little trees to let them grow into big trees.  They cut down everything, including brush, chip it up, and make pressboard.  Because that is how to make a profit.  In timber management, I find this idea abhorrent.  In my own domestic economy, however, I try to follow it.

There is nothing new about this type of frugality.  Many of our culinary delicacies today are the result of the frugality of our ancestors.  When you kill a calf, everybody can figure out what to do with the tenderloin.  A little salt, pepper, and maybe some other spices, sear it and serve it rare.  The meat is tender and tasty, and the prep is easy.  What am I supposed to do with the little guys legs though?  Even in a calf that meat is tough, made mostly of connective tissue and bone.  Well, braise that bad boy in wine for hours, and we have Osso Buco.  Have you ever ordered Osso Buco in a restaurant?  If you paid less than $20 for your dinner, you did well.  For a piece of meat some would be tempted to toss to the dogs.  Flank steak is another example of this.  It is tough but flavorful.  Somebody figured out you can marinate it, cook it rare, cut it against the grain, and make fajitas out of it.  Suddenly it is trendy and $14/lb at Whole Foods.  

However, I came here to tell you about my own innovation, not to complain about what trendiness does to meat prices.  My children love roasted chicken.  They call it Chicken With Bones-o.  This song, which you should listen to if you are not already familiar, is the reason.  They, being the little ones, love to chew on the bones-o.  This presents a problem though.  They like the legs, thighs, and wings.  I like the breast, but there is quite a bit of meat left on a chicken carcass even if we eat all of those parts.  And we don't always.  Sometimes they want to eat the leftovers, sometimes they don't.  So I freeze the carcases.  When I get about three in my freezer, I used to make stock.  Sometimes I still do, but even I can only use so much stock.  These days I make chicken enchiladas with the meat.  This means I get 1-2 meals for me and the kids out of every chicken, then an entire pan of enchiladas (about 12, or 6 meals for me) out of every three chickens.  Not to mention the scraps I feed my dog.  She gets real happy when I do that.


Here is my recipe for Leftover Chicken Enchiladas.  It borrows liberally from a recipe published in Cook's Illustrated, but is different enough to call it my own.

Leftover Chicken Enchiladas

3 chicken carcases.  

1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 small (14 oz) can enchilada sauce

1 Tb whole cumin seeds

3 Ancho chillies, dried

3 chipotle peppers from a can of chipotles in adobo, diced

2 medium onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press

1 Tb Hungarian smoked paprika

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 lb Monterey Jack Cheese (or pepper jack)

1 bunch cilantro

12 corn tortillas

In a large dutch oven, stock pot over medium heat, or slow cooker, combine the chicken carcases (they can still be frozen), tomatoes, enchilada sauce, chipotles, onions, garlic, and smoked paprika.  Cover and bring to a simmer.  You may need to move things around to be sure the chicken is at least half covered with liquid.  Remove the stems from the Ancho chiles.  Place in a coffee grinder with the cumin seeds and pulse the grinder until they are finely ground.  Add 2 Tb of the resulting powder to your pot.  Reserve the rest and add to taste (I generally add it all up front).  Note that if you refer to skip this step (basically you are making your own fresh chili powder), you can use equivalent amounts of commercial chili powder.

On the stove top, simmer for 3-4 hours on low, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  In slow cooker, cook on low for 8 hours or so.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Pick the edible meat from the carcases.  If you have a dog, reserve the non-bone portions you don't want to eat for him or her.  Otherwise, toss the bones and other discarded parts.  

Place the edible meat in a colander over a large bowl.  Pour the contents of the pot into the colander.  This is a second chance to look for small bones or other unpalatable bits of meat.  Discard any you find.  Shred the meat finely, and press against the colander to allow as much liquid to pass through as possible.  Place the shredded meat in another bowl.

Grate the cheese and coarsely chop the cilantro.  Add half the cheese, all of the cilantro, and pepper to taste to the shredded meat and stir to combine.  Now you have your enchilada filling (the meat) and your enchilada sauce (the strained liquid).  Taste both.  Add seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, more spice, more chili flavor).  Some possible additions:  Diced pickled jalapenos, Sriracha or other hot sauce, more chili powder, diced roasted peppers (canned or fresh).  

At this point, the sauce and filling can be refrigerated to allow you to assemble the enchiladas later, at your convenience.  Saving them in the refrigerator has the added benefit of solidifying the fat in the sauce, allowing it to be easily skimmed.  

When ready to assemble, preheat the oven to 350.  Warm the tortillas, one at a time, in a skillet on the stove top.  A quick spray of oil, or a little added to the pan, makes them easier to work with.  For each enchilada, take a warmed tortilla, fill with 1/12 of the filling, and roll.  Place, seam down, in a 9x13 baking pan.  You will have to do a little Tetris to fit them all in.  I do a row of 8 or9 (as many as will fit) parallel to the short edge of the pan.  Then I put the remaining 3-4 into the space parallel to the long edge of the pan.  Whatever works for you.  It is important not to leave big empty spaces though, as the sauce will pool there and you will end up with hard tortillas.  

When the pan is full, pour the sauce over the enchiladas.  Make an effort to moisten the top of all of the tortillas.  Cover the pan with foil, and bake for about 30 minutes.  Remove pan from oven, top with remaining cheese, and return to oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is well melted.  Remove from oven and serve.

I like to top with diced avocado, sour cream, and salsa, and serve with lettuce on the side.  

I love this recipe.  It is versatile (change the flavorings for a completely different result, skip the enchiladas and use the meat as burrito filling or to top nachos).  It uses something that would otherwise be wasted.  To be honest, after one or two meals of roast chicken, I am pretty tired of it.  This allows me a chance to use the whole thing without having to slog through another chicken sandwich, or a third meal of reheated chicken.  Toss it in the freezer when you are tired of eating the leftovers, and it will wait patiently for you to make something tasty with it.  I have to admit, I have been amazed by the reactions I've gotten to these enchiladas.  I think of them as something to get me through the week.  Every person I have served them to has been impressed way out of proportion (in my opinion) to their quality.  So make them if you have some chicken lying around (whether you roasted it yourself, or bought the $5 rotisserie chicken at the store, I've used both) and let me know what you think.