For several months my husband has been badgering me to make a chicken enchilada casserole, but his idea of that means layered chicken and tortillas. Personally, I think that when you do it that way the tortillas get kinda hard and it ends up being dry. So I went on a hunt and found this recipe. I kept the general ingredients, but tweaked it a little bit. Prep time: 20 mins. Cook time: 25-30 mins. Total: 50 minutes. Serves: 4-5
Chicken Rice Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients:
- 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
- 1 box Mexican rice (makes 3 cups cooked)
- 2 (10 ounce) cans enchilada sauce
- 1 (15 ounce) can refried beans
- 2 cups Mexican blend cheese
- 1 (10 ounce) bag frozen corn (save a handful for topping)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook rice according to directions on the box. Shred chicken. I used two chicken breasts, but you could totally use leftover chicken from a whole rotisserie too.
In a large bowl mix together the chicken, enchilada sauce, refried beans, corn, and half the cheese. I highly recommend warming the beans first, if you put them in straight from the can like I did it takes a while to get it smoothly mixed. No need to cook the corn first.
Next add the rice and mix thoroughly. (The original recipe used Basmati rice, but I wanted the flavor of the Mexican rice so I cheated and went with the boxed kind.) If you’d like to add some salt and pepper now is the time to do it. I found that it had enough flavor from the rice and sauce already, so I didn’t feel the need to add anything else.
Pour the mixture into a large casserole dish, top with remainder of the cheese, and a handful of corn. Since it’s just my husband and me in the house, I used a medium casserole dish and put the rest into one of my oven safe, glass tupperware dishes to freeze (2 meals in 1!!).
Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve warm and enjoy!
Recipe adapted from JoCooks.
thesunnyhousewife.wordpress.com 