Chicken Enchilada Pasta

My husband calls me a food snob.  My sister is one too.  Thanks to both of our Grandmas, we grew up eating really good food.  Now as an adult, it has made me so picky.  Not that I won't try new things, but I prefer high quality ingredients and I am really particular about certain brands of food.  Enchilada sauce is one of them.  I will go to Trader Joe's just for their enchilada sauce (and their bacon) even if I have nothing else on my shopping list.  I highly recommend it.  I had some leftover sauce from some cheese enchiladas I had made, and found this recipe on pinterest.com.  And then I found this Organic Sour Cream at Sprouts for $1.99 and it was a match made in heaven.

The recipe is from bhg.com, otherwise known as Better Homes and Gardens.  

I began my putting the red pepper, jalapeño and onion in my mini food processor.  It's the best kitchen tool I own.  I use it for everything from making crepes to pesto.

I diced it really small.  I didn't want the jalapeño to be to overpowering.

I sautéed the pepper mixture first with some butter (the recipe called for vegetable oil, but butter is always better in my book), and then added some garlic, cumin, chili powder and lemon juice.  The recipe calls for actual taco seasoning, but I never have it on hand, so I just made my own.  Also, I used macaroni noodles just because that is what I had in my pantry.  I then added some shredded rotisserie chicken and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (I halfed the recipe).  I finished it off according to the recipe directions.  The final result...

We used Doritos as the topping.  It really only takes one or two chips to cover a serving, so you don't feel too bad about covering your dinner with it.  My kids will anything if it has Doritos on it.  It has always been a struggle feeding my kids.  They are so picky (they may be food snobs too).  My husband suggest recently to just feed them what we are eating (novel idea, right?).  Don't make a big deal about it, and don't offer them anything else.  It has been totally working, I was so shocked.  My two year old the entire dinner kept repeating, "It's really really yummy!" "It's really really awesome!"  "It's really really good."  Both of my kids ate this and loved it.   

My two year old, Von's chubby little hand.  He could not stop himself from picking off the Doritos while I was taking pictures.

Pinmaker's rating: Love it
Level of Difficulty: Easy