Chicken Enchiladas for a Crowd

I'm posting Anneliese's Chicken Enchilada's  but I'm making it for a crowd this time. You can serve a main dish for thirty to forty people  depending on your side dishes without it being excessively expensive. If you buy fresh fryers and roast them yourself you can see that I spent under $1 per person for the meat. If you are willing to grate your own cheese and shop for the canned items on sale. .you have a pretty reasonable meal.

Make Dorothy's salsa  to go with tortilla chips. Add a fresh green salad to the table and you are set. I have the instructions broken down for a 2 day process simply because it makes the day or two before your party more relaxed. 

• 5 kilograms of whole chicken fryers (about 3)
• Cajun seasoning 

Enchilada Sauce ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 6 teaspoons cumin
• 6 teaspoons taco seasoning
• 6 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 12 cups broth reserved from day one 
• 2  ~ 398 ml/14 ounce cans tomato sauce
• 2 ~ 156 ml/5.5 ounce cans tomato paste
• 3 cups sour cream

Chicken Filling ingredients:

• 1 large jumbo onion or two medium to large, diced
• 2 green peppers, diced
• 1/2 cup butter
• 10 solid packed cups of diced chicken 
• 4 small cans green chili peppers
• 2 large jalapeno peppers minced fine (use rubber gloves)
• 4 cups Tex-Mex cheese or cheddar
• about 6 cups of Enchilada sauce 

• 40 small tortillas
• remaining enchilada sauce
• 5 cups Tex Mex cheese (to sprinkle over top)

Day one

1. Put  fryers in a large roasting pan and sprinkle well with Cajun seasoning and cover.
2. Bake at 350 for about 1 1/2 hours. Test the  meat to be done by sticking a fork in the thickest part of the white meat. The juices should run clear. The thigh should easily break apart from the rest of the chicken. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside to cool (about 30 minutes).
3. As soon as the meat is cool enough to handle. .remove the meat from the bones. .dicing as you go. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Put the bones and the juices from the pan in a large stock pot and cover with 4 litres of water.
5. Cover the pot, bring to a boil and then simmer  for 3 hours. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 1 hour and then strain the broth into a container with a lid to refrigerate. You should have about 1 ice cream pail full of broth (4 liters) Discard the bones.
6. The next day before you use the broth. ..discard the chilled chicken fat at the top of the broth.

Day two  
 Make Enchilada Sauce

1. Melt the butter and add the flour and stir until the flour begins to bubble.
2. Add all the remaining enchilada sauce ingredients except for the sour cream and cheese.
3. Simmer on low for one hour. . .stirring occasionally.
4. Add the sour cream.

 Put together Enchiladas

1. Put the diced chicken in a large bowl.
2. In a fry pan melt the butter and add the onion, green pepper and jalapeno pepper. Fry until tender crisp. Add to the chicken.
3. Add the green chili peppers, cheese and  6 cups of enchilada sauce.
4. Mix well.
5. Lay out 40 tortillas on your counter and  put a spoonful of filling on each tortilla, dividing up all the filling. Roll up and lay in pans which you have sprayed with cooking spray. I used three large foil roasting pans.
6. Cover with remaining enchilada sauce and sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 F. uncovered for one hour.

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