Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Around here, chicken is served on a regular basis. While it’s not my favorite, Miss Jogi can eat it morning, noon, and night. I prefer beef, myself. However, if you combine either one with the appropriately deemed Mexican spices, we’re happy campers. It’s seriously a rare occasion when we turn down Mexican food!
Even when we’re out about and traveling, Mexican is typically one of our first choices. We’re not afraid of stopping at some random Mexican restaurant that we’ve heard of before and likely to never stop at again. With most Mexican restaurants, you can typically walk in the front door and instantly know by the smell whether or not the food is good. You don’t need to see anything, you just know by how many people are there and how good it smells.
Of course, we can’t eat out all the time. So what do we do? We cook at home, of course. Some stuff is really simple and fast like tacos and nachos. We always have ground beef cooked and ready in the freezer for those. I haven’t bought refried beans in years. I’ve cooked my own pinto beans in the slow cooker and then freeze them as well. They’re so much cheaper and healthier than the store bought stuff! The chicken used in the Chicken Enchilada Casserole is also another slow cooker and freeze it item that we keep on hand around here these days.
Recently, I was in the mood for enchiladas. I found this fabulous looking “Stacked” Chicken Enchilada Casserole and decided that I could create my own using the ingredients we prefer around here. Thus, my Chicken Enchilada Casserole was born. Of course, it’s one of those recipes that’s easily adapted based upon your own personal preferences. I’ve already decided that I’m going to switch it up and make it with ground beef next time and experiment with using less enchilada sauce.
I don’t know about you, but I have tried rolling enchiladas before. It’s not very easy to do using corn tortillas. The corn tortillas are much less moist than flour tortillas and easily break when folded or rolled. This is the main reason I fell in love with the layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole idea. It was much easier and faster than a traditional enchilada.
Most of the time, I hate serving a casserole, lasagna, or anything else that’s thick or chunky in a dish. Why? The pasta, tortillas, or whatever in the layers tend to fall apart, stretch, or rip instead of coming out in nice neat servings. This is why I cut the tortillas into small, bite-size, rectangular pieces. It made the Chicken Enchilada Casserole easy to serve without creating a mess.
Give my Chicken Enchilada Casserole a try for yourself. Serve it up with my Spanish Rice with Peas and Carrots and you’ve got a complete meal. Let me know if you like it and don’t forget to pin it, share it, and all of that other good stuff so that your friends can try it, too! 😉
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Serves: 4
- NonStick Cooking Spray
- 4 Soft Corn Tortillas (enough for 5" x 7" dish)
- Refried Beans (Pinto Beans Make Great Refried Beans
- Shredded Fajita Chicken
- 10 oz can Enchilada Sauce
- Mexican Style Grated Cheese
- Green Onions
- Optional Toppings:
- Sour Cream
- Tomatoes
- Black Olives
- Avocado
- Preheat oven to 375*.
- Generously spray (5" x 7") casserole dish with nonstick spray.
- Stack tortillas. Cut in ½ then stack on top of one another again. Slice once one lengthwise, then into approximately 1" wide rectangles.
- Pour or spoon enchilada sauce onto the bottom of the dish. Want a moister casserole? Use up to ⅓ of the can, about 3 oz. Like a dryer casserole? Use about an ounce, just enough to coat the bottom of the dish.
- Top with a layer of tortillas. It's fine if they overlap or don't quite fit together.
- Add a little more enchilada sauce to the top of the tortillas.
- Spread the refried beans across the top of the tortilla layer. If using canned beans, add a little water and blend them together first. The thinner consistency will help the beans spread more evenly.
- Sprinkle the shredded chicken across the beans. Chicken can be shredded finely or coarsely and can be layered in thicker or thinner. Try ground beef instead of chicken for some variety.
- Toss a few slices of green onion onto the top of the shredded chicken. Not a ton, just a little, here and there.
- Next comes that pile of ooey, gooey cheesy goodness!
- Lightly top the cheese with about an ounce of enchilada sauce. Just enough to get the cheese wet.
- Top with another layer of tortillas. It's fine if they overlap or don't quite fit together.
- Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the tortilla layer. Lightly top with the sauce for a less moist casserole. Remaining sauce can be frozen for another day.
- Pile more cheese on top of the tortilla layer.
- Cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove foil and continue baking until cheese has completely melted and sauce is bubbling around the edges. This may take about 10 to 20 more minutes depending on your oven.
- While the casserole is baking, prep all condiments and toppings that will be used to garnish it.
- Allow to stand for a few minutes before serving.
- Garnish as desired.
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