Chicken Enchilada Casserole

You guys, I made a recipe I found on Pinterest. You know how you see Pinterest fails? This recipe is not one of those. This recipe is a winner.

I've been trying to be a bit more intentional about the meals I take to work. Generally, I plan for the first night (or two of the nights when I'm really on top of it), but I often find myself scrounging on night three. Too tired to get up to make something and not willing to give up precious sleep to run to the store, I have a haphazard lunch bag that isn't very satisfying. So my goal for the last couple weeks has been to find not only a recipe that I like, but one that will make delicious leftovers. You see, I'm not a big fan of leftovers. I feel like taste and texture take a significant drop after the first night, so it's hard to feel excited about eating a less delicious version of a meal.

Today, we get to put the chicken enchilada casserole into the winner category. It's gooood and still packs a lot of great flavor when reheated. Yum.

This originally comes from Chef in Training. I haven't explored the blog past this recipe, but I think I might need to after this cooking success.

Here are the details:

• 7-8 large flour tortillas
• 2½ cups cooked and shredded chicken
• 1½ cup Your favorite Salsa
• 1 can black beans
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 (8 oz) bag shredded Mexican cheese
• 1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ can cream of chicken

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, combine cooked and shredded chicken, salsa, black beans, corn, cumin and chili powder. Stir until evenly mixed.
4. Layer 2 tortillas on the bottom of greased pan. NOTE: You may need to trim 1 tortilla to fit the gaps left by the two tortillas on each level.
5. Place half of the chicken mixture on top of tortillas and evenly spread across.
6. Top with about ½-2/3 cup shredded cheese (about ⅓ of the bag) and evenly spread/sprinkle across the chicken mixture.
7. Next pour ⅓ of enchilada sauce evenly over cheese.
8. Repeat layers of tortilla, chicken mixture, cheese and enchilada sauce) then top with one last layer of tortillas. Evenly spread remaining enchilada sauce over the top level of tortillas.
9. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and ½ can cream of chicken soup. Stir together completely. Evenly spread over the top tortilla layer.
10. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
11. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes covered, then remove foil and bake for an addition 5-10 minutes or until cheese is completely melted and casserole is heated through.

And now for what I did differently: I used the smaller tortillas. They were on sale. I chose a salsa that had cilantro in it. Mmmm. Cilantro. So fresh and pure perfection. I skipped the chili powder because I didn't have any and didn't want to buy it. Instead of red enchilada sauce I used tomatillo sauce. I could write a love poem to tomatillo sauce. So good. Heaven help me. I ended up buying fresh chicken breasts and baking them myself with a little oil/vinegar mixture. It shredded beautifully. But if you're making this at dinner time and need a faster fix, buy a rotisserie chicken. Easy, peasy.
 
I hope y'all enjoy this recipe as much as I did. It's easy, fast, and just as delicious reheated.