Chicken enchilada casserole
Well guys, the piña colada cake didn't work - it did not actually transport me to the tropics. I know this is what we get for living in New England, but it'd be really great if Mother Nature gave us all a little bit of a break.
Since I cannot control the weather, I took matters into my own hands in the kitchen and whipped up some comforting hibernation fare. This recipe is basically a Mexican themed lasagna. It's super easy, especially when you shred an already cooked rotisserie chicken. As mentioned previously, one chicken gave me enough meat for this recipe as well as my coconut curry chicken noodle soup. These chickens are delicious time savers that you can spread out over multiple meals.
You can customize your casserole very easily - I happened to have some diced tomatoes and half a green pepper in my fridge so they got the go ahead for the dish. I upped the chili powder from the original recipe, but the end result was not spicy; if you wanted more heat you could certainly add in some of your favorite hot peppers.
A note about the picture to the right - this is what a piece looked like the next day (this dish makes for excellent leftovers). This is NOT what it will look like right after cooking; it's too hot and melty to look that good. Trust me though, no one will care that it's not picture perfect once they take a bite.
Chicken enchilada casserole
Adapted from Hunt's
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes til dinner (35 minutes prep, 45 minutes baking/resting)
Level: Easy
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion (roughly 1 medium sized onion)
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 29 oz. can tomato puree
1.5 cups diced tomato in juice
2 tablespoons chili powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
12 corn tortillas
4 cups shredded cooked chicken
3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheese blend (I used a Mexican style blend but feel free to use whatever you'd like or shred some from a brick)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add in the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, for a total of about 6 minutes, or until the onion is browned and tender; at the 3 minute mark, add in the pepper.
Stir in the tomato puree, diced tomato, chili powder, salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 12 minutes (stirring every now and then). I put a splatter shield on top of the pan because it was very full but I didn't want to cover the pan. It helps to minimize the mess :) Give the sauce a taste after it simmers and see if you need to add any salt or pepper.
In the baking dish, layer 4 tortillas, half of the chicken, 2/3 cup cheese, and a quarter of the sauce. Repeat these layers.
Top with remaining 4 tortillas, the rest of the sauce, and then the rest of the cheese.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes (rotate pan halfway through). Uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes - you want the casserole bubbling and the cheese melted.
Remove from the oven and let stand at room temperature for at least 10 minutes to give it time to firm up a little bit.
Mangia!