Monday, May 11, 2009

Enchilada Casserole

Josh and I were looking around for something to eat tonight. I had chicken defrosted, but no meal planned. We kind of combined our stand-by enchilada recipe, with some of the sauce that Annie uses in her recipe. This turned out pretty darn good! I decided to make it into a casserole since I thought that would be easier, and it cut down of the amount of tortilla we were eating (the filling is the good part!)
Enchilada Casserole
serves 4

2 smallish boneless skinless chicken breast halves (~3/4 lb)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 (4 or 7 oz) can green chilis, optional
3 flour (or corn) 8" tortillas
lots of salsa (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 c. Mexican blend cheese (or cheddar would work too)
4 oz. light sour cream (I eyeballed it, about 1/4 of a 16 oz container)
4 oz. ranch dressing (again, I eyeballed it)
1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cook and shred chicken (I boiled mine). While cooking chicken, preheat oven to 375 deg F, and grease a square glass baking pan (either 8x8 or 9x9) with some cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, mix sour cream and ranch dressing until combined.
3. Saute onion in a little oil until soft. Add chili powder and garlic powder, stir to combine.
4. Stir in chicken, green chilis, and half of the sour cream mixture. Stir for ~2 min, then remove from the heat.
5. Time to layer the casserole: Spread a little bit of salsa on the bottom of the pan (~1/4 cup, just so the bottom tortilla doesn't dry out). Place a tortilla in the pan (yes, the pan is square, so it doesn't fill the corners, but my casserole isn't perfect!). Spread a spoonful of the sour cream mixture on top of the tortilla. Pour half the chicken mixture into the pan, and spread until even. Top with a thin layer of salsa, spreading until even. Sprinkle with a layer of cheese. Now repeat: tortilla, spoonful of sour cream mixture, rest of chicken mixture, salsa, and cheese. Now top with one more tortilla, thin layer of salsa and the rest of the cheese.
6. Whew! Now bake for 30 min. Let set for 5 min before serving.
7. Top with sour cream/salsa/guacamole, and enjoy!REVIEW:
I've never had Annie's "Benchiladas", but I can only imagine they are good. We love our stand-by enchilada recipe, but I just didn't have all the ingredients, namely enchilada sauce. I didn't miss the sauce one bit in this casserole. It was pretty good if we do say so ourselves! If you are using a 9x13" pan, I would recommend using at least 1 1/2 times the ingredients. Oh, and at some point I will learn how to take a good picture of Mexican food.

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