Chicken Fajita Casserole

If you like fajitas, and you like casseroles, then I think you'll like this recipe. It's all the flavors of a sizzling fajita combined with some Mexican rice and queso cheese - quite the winning combo!

I used my Mexican Rice recipe as the Spanish rice that the original recipe called for. You could make the rice the day before to cut down on your cooking time and it would still turn out fine.

I cooked my chicken in the crock pot all day with some fajita seasoning. 

If you don't want to take the time to make the queso, you could replace the layer of queso with regular shredded cheese, and it would still be a great recipe, just a little less rich :)  I decreased the amount of milk in the queso from the original recipe, and I think it would have been super runny if I had included the extra half cup. The original recipe said she used a special queso cheese, which I don't even know what that would be in America, but definitely not available in India! I just used the old faithful processed cheddar cheese. Still tasted great!

Chicken Fajita Casserole

Original Recipe

1 lb of chicken, cooked and shredded

1 TBS of fajita seasoning or taco seasoning

1 recipe of Mexican Rice

1 red pepper, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

2 small or 1 medium onion, sliced

1 TBS olive oil

3-4 tortillas, cut into strips

2 TBS butter

2 TBS flour

1 cup of milk

2 cups of shredded cheese, plus a little more to sprinkle on top 

Spray a 8x8 or 9x9 sized casserole pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large saute pan or shallow pot, heat the olive oil, and then sautee the peppers and onions together until they're to your desired softness. Set aside in a bowl, and then wipe out the pan with a paper towel.

Melt the butter in the pan, and then whisk in the flour. Cook for a minute or two, then whisk in the milk. Heat until the mixture gets thicker, and then stir in the 2 cups of cheese. The mixture shouldn't be too runny, but pourable. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Add the fajita/taco seasoning to the shredded chicken.

Build the casserole in layers - start with a layer of half of the tortilla strips, then spread a layer of rice, followed by half of the sauteed vegetables and chicken. Press everything down, then pour half of the queso mixture over the top. Repeat the layers, ending with the queso. Sprinkle with a little extra cheese.

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 30 minutes or until everything looks warmed and bubbly. 

You could serve with salsa, sour cream and guac garnishes if you're feeling fajita fancy. :)

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.

Creamy Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

I tried out this new recipe from Pinterest (obviously), and I was really impressed at how versatile it is! Not to mention easy - I love the Crock Pot. Whoever invented it deserves a medal.

This is pretty much your standard Mexican chicken type recipe, with one surprising twist - cream cheese!

You just dump everything in the crock pot and shred up your chicken before eating. Simple simple.

We ate this with with some basmati rice wrapped in tortillas, but it would be great just over rice, or plain in a tortilla. The next day I ate some leftovers with some lettuce and crushed up tortilla chips, and it was delicious! You could even eat it with just tortilla chips like loaded nachos - seriously, eat it however you want!

I only used half of the tub of cream cheese, but if you want it to be extra creamy, add the whole tub (if you're in America, an 8 oz block of cream cheese). I've found that the Mother Dairy tub of cheese spread works as a pretty decent substitute for cream cheese (I've used it in cheesecake also).

Creamy Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

Original Recipe

1 lb chicken breasts

1 cup of salsa

1/2-1 whole tub of cream cheese

2 cups of black beans

1 cup of frozen corn

1 medium onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 TBS chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

(instead of the chili powder and cumin, you could also add a package of taco seasoning)

Shredded cheese for serving (optional)

Add everything to the crock pot. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Shred the chicken with two forks before serving, and stir together.

Serve with rice, tortillas, lettuce, tortilla chips, or any combination!

Mexican Rice

Confession: I didn't think I really liked Mexican Rice.

At Mexican restaurants when it would come with a side of beans and rice, I pretty much never at the rice.

But last week, a few of the girls and I were making Baked Chimichangas for dinner together, and Misha decided to make some Mexican rice as a side dish. I enjoyed eating it along with the chimichangas so much, that when I made the chimichangas again less than a week later (yep), I made some of my own Mexican rice to accompany it. 

So I guess you could say I'm an official fan of Mexican rice now. Especially when it's paired with chimichangas. 

Mexican Rice

Original Recipe

1 cup of basmati rice, rinsed

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of water

1 chicken cube

1 box of tomato puree

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped red or yellow bell pepper

4-5 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp dried cilantro (coriander leaf) - or a handful of chopped fresh

salt and pepper to taste

Dissolve the chicken cube in the 1 1/2 cups of boiling water to make chicken broth.

Heat a deep sautee pan or pot to medium heat and add the oil. Add the uncooked rice, onions and bell pepper to the oil. Stir and cook until the onions are translucent and the rice is browned. Add garlic and cook another minute. 

Pour in the chicken broth, tomato puree, salt, pepper, and dried cilantro (if using fresh, save till the end). Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Once it boils, turn heat to low and cover. Cook for 15-20 minutes until water is absorbed and rice is done cooking. Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed. Add chopped cilantro, if using fresh.

Baked Chimichangas

This is a recipe that I used to make back home in America that translates really well to India!

Baked chimichangas. Yum yum yum. So yummy, in fact, that I literally made them twice this week. But they're baked, not deep fried, so that makes it ok. Plus, I even made my tortillas with half atta (whole wheat flour), so that makes it extra ok.

These are simple and tasty (and kid approved!), so go ahead and make them multiple times a week!

Baked Chimichangas

Original Recipe

1 lb chicken keema (ground chicken)

1 box of tomato puree

1 package of taco seasoning

1-2 cups of cooked black beans (or one can)

6-8 chopped jarred jalapeños

7-8 large tortillas

1 TBS + 1 tsp olive oil

1 cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Cook the chicken keema in 1 TBS of olive oil. Add tomato puree, taco seasoning, black beans, and chopped jalapeños. Simmer over medium low heat for 3-5 minutes. Divide cheese and meat mixture evenly onto the tortillas, and fold both sides in, and then both ends over to create a little burrito package. Place seam side down onto a greased baking sheet (I like to line mine with foil for easy clean up). Brush the 1 tsp of olive oil over the tops of each chimichanga. 

Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are brown and crispy.

I liked serving this with some salsa, corn, and Mexican rice. Delicious! 

** Bonus! If you like the idea of baked chimichangas, but this specific recipe didn't float your boat, here's another version of chimichangas that my friend Lauren sent to me that you could try!

Crispy Black Bean Quesadillas

For some reason I'm on this big tortilla/burrito/quesadilla quick the past few days. Yesterday I made bean and cheese burritos, today I made some breakfast burritos to freeze, and then made these black bean quesadillas for dinner.

These are really simple to make, and they are even Landon approved, which is saying a lot, people.

When I used to make these in America I made them using pepperjack cheese, and they were so.so.good. If you're in America, please go buy some pepperjack cheese for these. Alas, here in India, we had to settle for the processed cheddar cheese (sigh) and although they were still good, there's no lying saying they were AS good. 

But still. They're great. You should eat them.

I'm including directions below to make the black beans from dry beans, but if you have canned black beans you can just drain and rinse those.

I definitely recommend you include the step of putting a little olive oil on the skillet to crisp up the quesadillas. That crispiness just adds a whole new level of goodness to these.

Crispy Black Bean Quesadillas

1 Cup dry black beans (called jammu rajma in India)

1 small onion, finely chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 tsps cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

pepper

1 TBS butter

6ish tortillas

Shredded cheddar cheese

Olive oil

1. Cook the black beans if you're using dry. Soak your black beans in water for several hours. If you don't have a pressure cooker, soak them overnight, and then simmer them or cook them in a crock pot for several hours. If you have a pressure cooker (ABSOLUTELY the way to go cooking beans!!!), drain and rinse the beans from the water they soaked in, and then put in the pressure cooker with enough water to cover them by about an inch. Cook in the pressure cooker for 5-7 whistles.

2. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the minced onions and sautee for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes. 

3. Add the black beans into the pan, and also add all the spices. Let cook for 5-10 minutes just to get all the flavors together.

4. Heat a skillet/griddle pan over medium/high heat. Brush with a little bit of olive oil or drizzle just a few drops. Put a tortilla on the skillet and press down with a spatula/flipper to crisp up the first side, then flip the tortilla over. Sprinkle a layer of cheese, then spoon a spoonful of the black beans, then finish with another layer of cheese. Carefully fold the tortilla over in half and press down with the spatula to get it to stick. 

5. Cook the quesadilla for 1-2 minutes on the first side till it starts getting crispy on the outside and melty on the inside, then carefully flip it over to crisp up the second side.

6. Repeat with remaining tortillas, adding a little olive oil to the griddle with each new tortilla.

These would probably be even more delicious served with salsa, but hey, Kyle's out of town, so I"m doing good to make dinner for the kids and myself and not just order pizza, right?

Oven Baked Fajitas

You need to make this recipe. Like, today. 

This is the easiest, easiest thing you could make for dinner. Other than a bowl of cereal.

Especially since our house helper chops all the veggies and makes our tortillas for us, this is literally the easiest dinner I make. (In fact, I use the phrase "I make" very loosely, since I, in fact, do hardly anything).

The beauty of these fajitas is that you just cook the whole thing in oven together. No slaving away over the stove sauteeing veggies and chicken. Does it lose a little of the wonderful grilled chicken flavor by cooking it in the oven? Of course. But I only know one person in India who has a grill (Hi Steph!), so that's kind of a moot point here anyway. 

I sprinkle my chicken with some fajita seasoning I brought from America, but if you don't have any here in India with you, here's a recipe to make your own. 

Serve these along with your favorite toppings. We just stuck with salsa and shredded cheese. Soooooo delicious. 

If you're a gluten free person, you could even make this and just serve it over rice. Yum! I'm not gluten free and I still might do that someday.

Oven Baked Fajitas

3 chicken breasts, cut into strips

2 green bell peppers

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

2-3 onions

2-3 TBS fajita seasoning mix

2-3 TBS olive oil

Tortillas (here's a recipe for homemade tortillas)

Heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 F)

Cut the peppers and onions into strips. Sprinkle the chicken breast strips with 1-2 TBS of the fajita seasoning mix. 

Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a large oven safe pan. Put the chicken in the pan, followed by all the chopped veggies. Drizzle with more olive oil, and more fajita seasoning, then stir to mix well. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Serve with your favorite fajita toppings! Enjoy your easiest dinner ever. 

Serves 5-6 people. 

Chicken Burrito Bowls

Yes, we are channeling our inner Chipotle today.

No, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this is as good as actual Chipotle. No way. There's just something too delicious about Chipotle to be copied at home. 

But this is still really tasty!

And really, it's rather simple...Just assemble rice, chicken, and a yummy black bean & corn salsa.

So colorful and delicious!

To make my chicken, I just cooked the chicken in the crock pot with some chicken broth, shredded it, and then mixed it with some fajita seasoning. I prefer that method because I'm lazy and would rather have the crock pot cook the chicken than stand over the stove it's easy. But you could also cube the chicken and cook it in a little olive oil. You could also ax the chicken altogether and have a nice vegetarian, cheap meal!

Enjoy your (almost) Chipotle goodness!

Chicken Burrito Bowls

2-3 chicken breasts, seasoned with Mexican seasoning & cooked.

1-2 cups of basmati rice, cooked according to package directions.

For the salsa:

1 can equivalent of black beans - I use 1/4 of a package of dry beans that have been cooked, drained & rinsed

2 cups frozen corn, thawed

1 large or 2 small onions, chopped

1 green capsicum, chopped (bell pepper)

3 tomatoes, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

Chopped Green chiles or jarred jalapenos to your heat taste

Handful of coriander leaf (cilantro), roughly chopped

1 TBS lime/lemon juice

1 tsp chili powder (American version)

1 tsp cumin

1-2 tsps salt

Mix all the salsa ingredients together. Layer the rice, chicken, salsa, and top with shredded cheese! I like to eat this with tortilla chips, but it would also be great rolled in a tortilla, and very Chipotle-esque. You can even get fancy and stir some lime juice/cilantro into the rice. Yummmmm.

A big bowl of delicious

Taco Pasta - with Healthy Options

Tacos and pasta together in the same meal...what's not to like?!

I found a recipe on Pinterest awhile back for Taco Spaghetti that was the inspiration for this meal, but I made several changes, one major one being the type of pasta I used - Landon and Layla are slightly less messy with shaped pasta than with spaghetti noodles, and I actually like them better in this dish as well. 

The original recipe called for 1 lb of meat, but I only use 1/2 lb of chicken keema, because I also like adding black beans. This version of the recipe serves 5-6 people, and technically I guess it's more of a "halved" version - I use half a jar of salsa, half a packet of taco seasoning (they're precious enough to save the extra half for later).

Up your veggie content: Add extra bell peppers, diced tomatoes, diced zucchini, or chopped spinach! I have started adding chopped spinach and zucchini in every time, and we love it. You can't even taste the spinach, and since there's also chopped cilantro in there, it doesn't look weird either, just extra green! 

Taco Pasta

1/2 lb chicken keema (ground chicken) ** (see footnote)

1 big or 2 small onions, chopped **

1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped **

1/2 cup salsa

1/2 cup water

1/2 package of taco seasoning, or equivalent seasonings

4-5 jalapenos from the jar, chopped

1 1/2 cups black beans, cooked and rinsed

1 cup frozen corn

Handful of chopped Coriander Leaf (cilantro) 

1 cup of shredded cheese (we like our cheese, so you could use less)

1/2 of a 500 gram package of Rotini, or penne, or similar pasta

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, brown the chicken keema along with the onions and red pepper (and zucchini, if using). Add the black beans, water and taco seasoning, and cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until some of the water reduces. Stir in the salsa, jalapenos, and corn (and spinach, if using). Continue cooking on medium heat till everything is heated through.

When pasta is finished cooking, drain and then add to the sauce mixture. Stir well, and then stir in the cheese and chopped coriander leaf. Done!

We love to eat this with tortilla chips - adds extra crunch and a bit of salt! I highly recommend adding the coriander leaf - it adds such a brightness to the dish! I even sprinkle a little extra on mine before serving, because I just love the pop of flavor and smell.
Extra healthy options: Instead of mixing in pasta, serve the chicken/veggie mixture over brown rice, or a bed of lettuce!

Also, for the record, here's the specific type of salsa I like to use:

It's my favorite by far of the 4-5 different types of jarred salsa I've tried out here. I'm even picky enough to prefer the "Wrap Salsa" version over the "Taco Salsa" version by the same brand. It's actually very reasonably priced, as well! If you can find it, I highly recommend it (this is, of course, for India. If you're in America, you have a plethora of great salsa options, and probably not this one). 

** Also, another sidenote tip - when I make this, I actually brown the whole pound of chicken keema with the onion and one whole red pepper, and then I separate half of the mixture into a container to freeze for later use. So easy and helpful!!

White Chicken Enchiladas

This is possibly my favorite thing I've made in India so far.

White Chicken Enchiladas. We love our Mexican food, even in India!

Here's a link to the original recipe I found on Pinterest. But here's how I make it India style:

White Chicken Enchiladas

3 Chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I throw mine in the crock pot for several hours with some water and chicken broth cubes, then shred)

1 TBS Fajita seasoning, or any kind of taco type seasoning.

2 cups shredded cheese
3 TBS butter

3 TBS flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup Dahi

6-10 chopped up jalapeno slices (the original recipe calls for a can of diced green chiles, but they don't have that here. I did find some jarred jalapenos though, like they put on nachos, and I've found that chopping a few of those up works great!)

8-10 tortillas - you may be able to find them in an import section, but they'll be pricey. So I make my own. Here's the recipe I use for tortillas.

Mix the chicken with the Fajita seasoning. Mix chicken with 1 cup of cheese. Spoon some chicken/cheese mixture onto each tortilla and roll up, placing in a greased baking pan.

In a sauce pan, melt the butter on medium/low heat. Stir in the flour and cook 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and whisk. Heat on medium till thick and bubbly. Stir in the Dahi and chopped jalapenos and cook till heated through, but do not bring to a boil. Pour over the tortillas and top with remaining cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees F, 170 degrees C.

Seriously, I love these things. In fact looking at these pictures makes me wish we were having them for dinner tonight. This is probably another recipe I'll transport with me back to the U.S. someday...so delicious!