Enchilada Soup & Cornbread

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I normally don't post recipes when I forget to take a picture, but I brought this to Heather's bachelorette party this week and the recipe was requested, so here it is! There are some copycat Chili's enchilada soup recipes floating around out there and this is my own take on creamy chicken enchilada soup. Honestly, I've never had Chili's soup because its not my favorite restaurant. If their soup is really this good I may have to reconsider. :)

ENCHILADA SOUP

2-3 Tbs olive oil
3 chicken breasts- (I marinated mine for a few hours in achiote paste blended with vinegar, garlic, white pepper and a little water)
1/2 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 C chicken broth
1 C masa harina*
1 C Rosarita enchilada sauce
1/2 C sherry cooking wine (I just had this so I put it in, you could get creative w/ apple juice etc)
16 oz pkg velveeta cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
chicken boullion- pollo seasoning, to taste
1/2 chipotle pepper, minced (i freeze mine then use a zester, you could finely dice it)
1/2 Tbs lime juice, to taste
sauteed mushrooms (optional)
garnish w/ desired toppings: tortilla strips/crumbled chips, dollop of sour cream, pico de gallo, avacado etc
Add oil to a pan and brown chicken on both sides until cooked through. slice into bite-size pieces and set aside. In a pot add olive oil and saute onions until transluscent. Add garlic then chicken broth. Whisk masa harina with 1 C water and add to the pot. Add enchilada sauce, cheese, spices, chipotle pepper, lime, and sherry.  Add additional liquid as needed, pollo boullion seasoning is good to add if you add a lot more water.  Add chicken and mushrooms, you could add black beans and corn too.  Simmer for a bit and serve, its easy to make the day before and makes good leftovers too!
*You can get masa harina from the latin section of most grocery stores, pollo seasoning too
If you make the achiote chicken the outside of it turns this amazing color: (and stays much prettier if you grill it)

I've really been enjoying a simple, authentic cornbread recipe for the past while. Whenever I try mexican cornbread recipes they aren't as good, so I changed up my favorite cornbread and I was happy with the results. 

MEXICAN CORNBREAD
1/2 C butter
2/3 C sugar
4 eggs
1 can creamed corn
1 small container buttermilk (almost a cup I think)
1/2 can chopped green chilis or 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and finely diced
2-3 Tbs grated red bell pepper
1/2 C pepperjack cheese (I just had sliced so I tore it into little squares)
3/4 C sharp cheddar cheese
1 C flour
1 C cornmeal
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
Heat oven to 350 and melt butter in a casserole dish in the oven. Whisk all other ingredients together in a bowl and pour in melted butter leaving about 1 Tbs in the bottom of the pan. Stir together and pour into the pan. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Loosly cover with foil after the top browns slightly.