chicken enchilada casserole

i recently picked up a 'best one-dish meal' magazine by cooking light.

my first experiment was the chicken enchilada casserole.

it goes something like this...

(i've made a few modifications)

ingredients

cooking spray

4 chicken breasts

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/3 cup 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 cups chopped onion

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup chicken broth

2/3 cup salsa verde

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeno peppers

9 corn tortillas

1/2 shredded sharp cheddar cheese

love

directions

1. cook your chicken

i love cooking chicken in a super easy no fuss, no work way...

a. preheat over for 400 degrees

b. layout 4 large squares of foil, shiny side up

c. place a small amount of olive oil (1 tablespoon) in the center of each foil square

d. place one chicken breast on each square

e. salt and pepper (or add other seasoning if you wish)

f. fold foil up around each piece of chicken and place on a cookie sheet

g. place them in the over for 30 minutes.

what i love about this method is that the chicken is always perfectly done, but moist

AND you can keep prepping and cooking everything else in your recipe

without having to think about the chicken! try it!

back to the rest of our recipe... :)

2. shred chicken

3. combine chicken in medium bowl with corn,

cream cheese, red pepper, cumin, salt and black pepper

4. change oven preheat temp to 425 degrees

5. on medium/high heat, saute 1/2 cup of onions for 5 minutes

6. add 3 minced garlic cloves, saute for 30 seconds

7. add this onion mixture to your chicken mixture

8. combine the remaining 1.5 cups of onions, 3 minced garlic cloves, broth,

salsa, water and jalapeno in a medium saucepan over medium/high heat.

bring to a boil. reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.

(i used the following salsa and jalapeno peppers for reference)

 9. carefully pour this mixture into a blender. process until smooth.

10. heat another large skillet and toast your tortillas

lightly on both sides - cut these in quarters

11. spread half cup of the salsa mixture over the bottom of your

2 quart baking dish coated with cooking spray

arrange 12 tortilla quarters over salsa mixture

spoon half of chicken mixture over tortillas

pour remaining salsa mixture over the tortillas

sprinkle with cheddar cheese

12. bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned

13. ENJOY!

review

this recipe was fun to make, and it was relatively easy with some modifications

it was spicy and pretty good. but i wasn't TOTALLY in love

i think it could be used as a side dish, but i don't think it lived up to it's name of 'one dish meal'

anyway. thought i would share!

more soon :)