HOUSTON – Abe Sanchez, the executive chef at Kitchen Monster Creations, joins the Houston Life studio before he competes in Season 21 of Hell’s Kitchen.
Sanchez, who owns a healthy meal prepping company in Crosby, TX, shared with us a better-for-you recipe for enchiladas.
Sanchez is one of eighteen aspiring chefs from across the country appearing this season of the popular reality show hosted by Gordon Ramsay, and he’ll be part of the blue team, representing the 40-year-old plus chefs.
Check out the interview in the video above.
To connect with Sanchez, click here.
For the complete recipe keep reading further below.
Turkey Zucchini Enchiladas
Turkey:
- 1 yellow onion- small diced
- 1 red bell pepper- small diced
- 1 green bell pepper- small diced
- 2 small sticks of celery, diced
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 half jalapeño- small diced and seeded
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
Enchiladas:
- 4- zucchini- rolled out into thin sheets
- 1 cup mozzarella
Spanish Avocado sauce:
- 1/3 cup sautéed veggies
- 2 cups cilantro rock chopped,
- 1 avocado
- 1 stick celery
- ½ half cup almond milk
- 1squeezed lime
- lime zest
- salt and pepper to taste
Pico:
- cherry tomatoes, sliced
- cilantro leaves
- red onions, diced
- small diced jalapeños
- lime juice
- extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Let’s start off by chopping all your vegetables and setting them aside. Heat up the sauté pan and add 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil. Once grapeseed oil is heated, add the vegetables, and stir until translucent for about 3 or 4 minutes.
Add garlic and stir for another 30 seconds then remove from the pan and set aside.
Add ground turkey to the pan and spread the turkey as flat as possible and let cook on high heat until the meat dries and caramelizes on the bottom side like a burger. Turn the turkey over in sections to evenly caramelize the other side. Once you have reached the burger texture on both sides then you roughly chop it in the pan. Add 2/3 of the sautéed onions and peppers to the turkey. Save the other portion for the sauce. Add one cup of veggie stock or any kind of seasoned water that you have on hand.
Add all the dry seasonings, cover, reduce heat, and cook for 12 minutes. Remove the top, turn the heat to medium, and reduce the rest of the stock, adding fresh cilantro. Remove from heat and set aside for assembly.
For the sauce, I like to use a Nutribullet. It gives me the perfect purée every time. Add all your ingredients other than the salt and pepper and blend to completely puréed. Add salt and pepper to taste and blend for another 15 seconds and set aside.
To make it look extra fancy, I like to do a deconstructed pico. I’ll lay out all of my prepared ingredients on a tray with parchment paper and season them individually. Then individually assembled like a dish of its own. Makes that much of a difference and presentation. Get that “WOW” factor.
To roll the zucchini, I use a vegetable sheet roller. You can find it on Amazon. Gives you the perfect vegetable sheets and is easy to roll. You cut them to the size you want, depending on how much Zucchini you like. Preheat your oven on broil. So, when you’re done with the assembly, you’re ready to go straight to the oven. Add your portion of turkey meat to one end of the sheet and roll upwards all the way to the top, like rolling up a poster with turkey meat inside.
Place enchilada in a pan-sprayed baking dish until you fill your desired amount and place the oven on the top rack under the broiler for three minutes, remove from the oven, and add the desired amount of sauce and mozzarella on top. Place enchiladas in the oven on the bottom rack and cook for another five minutes. Remove, garnish with pico, and watch your guests enjoy it.
Recipe provided by Chef Abe Sanchez.