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.