Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (mild, and without using condensed soup)

If you like a "hotter" dish than we do, you can add all the "hotness" you want by using HOT salsa, adding  chilies, ... or ... even adding Jalapeño peppers until you're "SMOKING" hot!!

Yesterday, even though the following recipe is for a 9x13-inch dish, I doubled the amount of everything and assembled all in a sprayed 15" x 10" x 2" glass baking dish.  Believe me, they were VERY "cozily" packed together!  By pushing them "together",  I managed to get 14 down the length of the pan, and then stuck the last two in along the long edge.  Because these were so crowded, I made sure to separate them a little bit as I poured the sauce over the top.  By making this large batch (and having a crowded dish), I could get away with putting this tightly covered dish into the oven at 210-degrees for for a long 3.5 hours and come home to it turning out perfectly.

INGREDIENTS for 6-8 servings:

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, cut into small cubes (or, if you prefer, cook the chicken breasts as they are and then shred the meat).  Using left-over meat from a rotisserie chicken would really speed things up with this recipe!
1 small onion, chopped  (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
...
8 of 8-inch flour tortillas
1 and 1/2 cups of grated Monterey Jack OR Mexican Blend cheese, divided.
1 and 1/2 cups of mild chunky salsa, divided --I used Tostitos brand, but home-made would maybe be the GREATest!  (Because I doubled the recipe yesterday, I ended up using all of the Tostitos 24-oz. jar, which filled 3 cups.)
...
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 of 15-oz. can chicken broth (I like MSG-free...as free as possible, that is.  Homemade chicken broth would probably be the very best!!!!)
1 cup of sour cream (I used Daisy brand, because of it not having "extra stuff" in it)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a frying pan, cook the chicken (and optional chopped onion) in the oil over medium heat until just done.
2. Spread out the 8 tortilla shells.  
3. In a little row, put 1/8 of the chicken pieces on each of the shells.
4. Put about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons shredded cheese on the chicken pieces.
5. Put about 1 tablespoon of the salsa on the "cheese row".
6. Roll each tortilla up, putting them into a lightly non-stick sprayed 9x13" baking dish.  Set aside....
7. In a medium saucepan, melt butter.  Stir in flour.  Stir until "bubbly" and smoothly mixed.  Gradually, whisk in the chicken broth, stirring constantly and watching that it doesn't scorch.  Bring to boiling, and let boil for at least a full minute.
8. Remove from heat and add the sour cream.  Blend well.
9. Pour thickened sauce over enchiladas in the dish.
10. Top with remaining cheese. Or, you could jump ahead and do the the next (#11) step before layering with cheese.
11. Drop dabs of the remaining mild chunky salsa on the top of all.* 
12. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 375-degrees for 20 minutes OR until the cheese is melted and you see "bubbly" happening around the edges. 

*  At this point, you could double-wrap and freeze it until it is needed...well, within a month, or two?  When taking from freezer, you'd have to bake this considerably longer-- adjust the time accordingly.