Crunchy Fiesta Chicken Casserole

Holy yum.

Y'all. I loved this dish. Really loved. REALLY.

And it was soooooooo easy. Please tell me you'll make it.

When I was getting dinner ready, Landon asked what we were having. I told him chicken with cheese and chips on it. He said, "Whoa-hoh, good choice, Mom!" And he was right. Excellent choice. 

Mix and Match Mama wins again! I love her recipes!

Her original recipe was for just the chicken casserole, but I took the suggestion of one of the comments and served it over brown rice. Definitely the way to go. I think it gave it a lot more substance that way. You could also add in some black beans to give it a little something extra if you want. 

For real, you need to make this.

Crunchy Fiesta Chicken Casserole

Original Recipe

1 pound chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1/2 cup of salsa

1/2 cup of Dahi (or sour cream)

1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute

8-10 jarred jalapeños, finely chopped

1-2 TBS southwest seasoning (or taco, or any Mexican type seasoning)

2 cups of shredded cheese

2 cups of tortilla chips, slightly crushed

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 F)

Combine chicken, southwest seasoning, salsa, dahi, cream of chicken soup, jalapeños and 1 cup cheese. 

Spray a small casserole dish (mine is 9x11) with cooking spray. Spread the chicken mixture in the casserole dish. Top with remaining 1 cup of cheese and then crushed tortilla chips. Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes. Serve over brown rice (optional).

Santa Fe Chicken Casserole

I'm really excited to share this recipe with you.

This casserole was super. Super duper.

I used to cook a lot of recipes from Kraft Foods - remember the good ol' days when their monthly magazine was free? Those magazines fed us for a lot of the beginning of our marriage! 

The magazine may not be free anymore, but they do send out weekly emails of recipes. A lot of the recipes aren't super India friendly, so a lot of times I kind of ignore them right now, but this one was India capable, and I loved it!

It's kind of like a Mexican lasagna, with tortillas instead of lasagna noodles. But after baking, the tortillas sort of morphed into this half tortilla/half noodle texture that was just great. Great I tell you.

Look at those layers...despite the terrible pic

Once again I used this as my cream cheese:

I made a handful of modifications to the recipe, but it follows the basic guidelines. I swapped out the tomatoes for a bell pepper because Kyle and I aren't huge chunks of tomato fans. But if you are, by all means throw some tomatoes in there!

I think I used about a cup of shredded cheese total in this dish. But if we're honest, it was maybe more. I don't ever measure cheese in a dish like this (or any dish?) - just sprinkle with the more is more mentality. 

Does anyone actually measure their cheese?! 

Regardless...enjoy!

Santa Fe Chicken Casserole

Original Recipe

1 pound chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

6 tortillas

1 tub of cream cheese

2 TBS of taco seasoning

2 TBS of milk

1 chopped bell pepper

1 small chopped onion

1 cup of frozen corn, thawed in the microwave

1 1/2 - 2 cups of black beans

1 cup of shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 170 Degrees Celsius (350 F)

Mix the cream cheese, taco seasoning, and milk in a bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine the chicken, bell pepper, onion, corn, and black beans. Stir in half of the cream cheese mixture.

Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray (I think mine is 9x11 inches or weird size like that. You could also do this in a large pie plate with only 3 tortillas).

Spread 1/3 of the chicken mixture in the bottom of the dish. Top with 2 tortillas spread to cover the whole dish, not on top of one another. Spread half of the remaining chicken mixture over the tortillas, followed by 1/3 of the cheese. Layer two more tortillas. Then spread the remaining chicken mixture and half of the remaining of the cheese. Add the final two tortillas. 

Spread the remaining cream cheese mixture over the top tortillas, and then finally sprinkle with the last of the cheese. 

Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes.

Chicken and Potato Creamy Casserole

I hadn't tried any new recipes in a few weeks, so earlier this week I decided to hunt through my Pinterest boards to find recipes lurking there untried. I came across this recipe for a chicken and potato casserole and decided to give it a shot - after all, chicken and potatoes are certainly very available in India!

I'm not gonna lie; this wasn't our most favorite recipe ever. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't awesome, so I probably won't make it again. But, I figure that people have different tastes, so I'd still post it anyway, since it's an easy India recipe (and not Mexican...which 70% of the recipes I make here are, ha ha).

**One note...I felt like in order to cook it long enough for the potatoes to be soft, the chicken wound up being very dry. So I would either cut the potatoes into very small cubes, or even shred them, or I would leave the chicken breasts whole and just set them down in the potatoes immersed in the sauce. But I left the directions below with how I did it from the original recipe.

Chicken and Potato Creamy Casserole

Original Recipe

2 chicken breasts, uncooked and cut into cubes

3 medium sized potatoes, skinned and cut into small cubes

1/4 cup onion, chopped

2 TBS bacon bits (or 2 pieces of bacon, cooked and chopped) 

2 TBS butter, cut in pieces

1 cup of shredded cheese

1/4 cup of Fresh Cream (the little box of cream) - I mixed in a splash of milk to re-liquify it

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt + more to taste

pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 F)

Spray a 9x9 casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread the potatoes and chicken together in a layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Next, sprinkle the pieces of butter, chopped onion and bacon bits over the potatoes and chicken, and then add half of the cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, 1 tsp of salt and a few dashes of pepper into the cream. Pour over the potatoes and chicken.

Here it was before baking

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Then remove the foil and bake an additional 30 minutes. Sprinkle the other half of cheese over the casserole and bake another 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. 

Like I said, this isn't an award winning recipe in my books, but it would be easy to throw together if you have some potatoes to use up - very pantry staple ingredients!