Enchiladas de Chili Ajo

This is a recipe out of Saveur that we've made a couple of times now and really enjoy. The complex flavors of the sauce along with the smokiness of chicken create a wonderful balance  - As with most things we do around here, the recipe is modified to be prepared (mostly) outside, and tweaked to our liking - Simply click on the picture to enlarge -

We start with brining 3 chickens. To each tub we added a bunch of parsley, a peeled & smashed head's worth of garlic, a couple of halved lemons and some toasted pepper corns. I like a 17 degree brine, which we let go for about 12 hours. A 17 degree brine can be calculated at 177 grams of salt and 86 grams of sugar per gallon of water.

The chickens have come out of the brine, and have been dried and rested for another 12 hours. Next they get a sprinkle of a salt-less rub created from Chile de Arbol, Chile Guajillo, New Mexican "Anaheim" Chile, onion, Mexican oregano, black pepper and garlic. No salt in the rub, as the brine get the meat to the proper saltiness. We then hit them with some cilantro / garlic butter before sticking them out on the Weber smoker.

 

Here they are after about an hour and half at about 325. You really don't have to do anything to except maybe hit them with some of the butter once or twice - you don't even really need to do that. 

...and done! They probably went for 2+ hours - we do them to temperature. Now let them cool, wrap them up and into the fridge over night before shredding.

 

Shred it up, and get ready to start into the sauce..

A can of enchilada sauce cost about 67 cents, but we ae going to prove that making your own is really worth the time and effort. I was a bit dubious the first time we did this,  but really, there is no comparison. We start with fresh veggies and dried guajillo chiles -

Head outside and get the the Weber going. It was another gorgeous day - We've had the mildest winter since we've lived here- I'm not complaining! 

We cored the Roma's and added a chuck of mulberry wood cooked the veggies. The skin comes right off the tomatoes. We let these go until everything is soft and chard - about 15 minutes. 

After the veggies are done, we get going on the chiles - I like to stem and seed them before re-hydrating them. I think the recipe says to do it after. That seems messy to me.  Heat them in a pan for a couple of minutes to release the aroma, then pour boiling water over to just cover them and let them get soft.

After blending up all the sauce ingredients and straining, you are left with this!  This is some good stuff - 

All that is left is to assemble the enchiladas and serve with rice and beans - enjoy!