Monday, February 17, 2014

Chicken Enchilada Bake




I was unable to get a picture of my own casserole because I was working and had pre-made and refrigerated the dish for the kids to bake for dinner. So I'm using the stock picture from the original website where I got this recipe.



Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, approximately 3 cups, cooked and cut into bite size pieces
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 ounce)
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 ounce)
  • 10 ounce can Rotel (drain excess liquid) 
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup milk 
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (divided in half)
  • *12 corn tortillas - prepared/softened - see note below (flour tortillas can be  substituted for corn - If you use flour tortillas, skip the Softening process)    
  • fresh lime (optional) cut into wedges
  • fresh cilantro (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Prepare your corn tortillas and set aside.  In a large bowl mix the soups, rotel, sour cream, garlic powder and milk.  Reserve 3/4 of the mixture and set aside.  with the remaining 1/4 of mixture, add the cooked chicken and 3/4 cup shredded cheese.  Next, add a little sauce to the bottom of the baking pan, enough to coat the bottom lightly (see photo).  Spoon chicken mixture into each tortilla, roll and place seam down in baking dish, side by side (see photo).  Spoon the reserved sauce evenly over rolled tortillas and top with remaining cheese.  Place in oven on middle rack and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until cheese bubbles.  Serve hot with fresh cilantro sprinkled on top and fresh squeezed lime juice.   Enjoy!

My version of above recipe:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked, cubed (I poach my chicken breasts and squeeze fresh lime on them while they cook to add flavor)
1 - 10 3/4 oz can low-sodium cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 - 10 3/4 oz can low-sodium cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 - 10 oz can RoTel Mexican Lime & Cilantro Diced Tomatoes, juice drained (mostly)
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup 1% milk
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (I used sweet onion, but in future I might use green onion) - optional
6 - (8 inch) whole wheat flour tortillas, cut in approx. 1-2 inch pieces
2-4 cups reduced fat Mexican blend shredded cheese
1 fresh lime
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Large bowl: mix together both cans soup, diced tomatoes, sour cream, milk, garlic powder, onion and cilantro. 
Remove one cup of mixture and set aside. Use about 1/2 to 1 cup to spread across the bottom of a lightly sprayed/greased 9 x 13 baking dish.

Sprinkle pieces from two cut tortillas evenly over bottom layer of mix. Then sprinkle about 1/2 to 1 cup reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese over tortilla pieces. Cheese is definitely up to you and how much you like cheese.

Add diced chicken to bowl along with 1 cup of the cheese, mix well.

Spread half chicken mixture in baking dish over shredded cheese.

Sprinkle pieces from two more cut tortillas, evenly.

You may sprinkle more cheese here if you like, but I did not.

Spread remainder of chicken mixture and top with pieces of two more flour tortillas. Finally, sprinkle about 1 to 2 cups more cheese. However much you use is completely up to you! We like cheese, so we made this cheesier, but we used reduced fat cheese so that's good, right? 

Now, her recipe says to bake about 30 minutes on 350 degrees, which would be perfect if baking as soon as you make it.

However, because I refrigerated my dish before baking, it needed closer to an hour to fully bake out til it was all melty and bubbly.

Her recipe also says to squeeze the lime over dish and add some fresh chopped cilantro as a garnish, but because I knew I would not be home to do this, that is why I added the fresh cilantro to the mixture and put the lime in the chicken as it cooked.

This dish is absolutely a must have for every kitchen! 

I can't wait to make it again!

Bon Appetit! Or whatever the equivalent to that is in Spanish.