Now, if I’d just read the recipe all the way through before I started cooking, it wouldn’t have come as such a surprise to me that this would be a Layered Chicken Enchiladas dish, rather than traditional rolled enchiladas.
But, in fact – confession time – I am terrible when it comes to reading through the recipe. I skim, I assume I know how things will turn out, and I get started. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now, after too many episodes of not realizing a bread recipe needed a second rise (and an additional hour in which to do it), or discovering the existence of a sub-recipe that needed to be prepared ahead of time. Or, as in the case of today’s recipe, finding out that I’m making a completely different dish than I thought I was.
Ok, not completely different. All of the familiar elements of chicken enchiladas are there – chicken, cheese, tomatoes, onions, tortillas. But instead of rolling up the filling inside the tortillas, you layer all the ingredients, like a lasagna. In a way, this little twist came as a good surprise as I was short on time and layering is a bit quicker and easier than rolling.
Let’s call it a happy surprise. 🙂
Layered Chicken Enchiladas
From the Santa Fe Enchilada Bake recipe on the back of the KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese package
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 40 minutes | Total time: 1 hour
Yield: 8 servings
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (I used thighs)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped (I had a red pepper on hand)
- 2 cups salsa
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen corn, thawed
- 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1-1/2 cups Mexican-style shredded cheese
DIRECTIONS:
- Heat the oven to 400ºF.
- Cook and stir chicken, onions and peppers in large nonstick skillet on medium heat 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in salsa and corn.
- Arrange 6 tortillas on bottom of 13×9-inch baking dish; cover with layers of half each of the chicken mixture, sour cream and cheese. Repeat layers; cover.
- Bake 40 minutes or until heated through, uncovering for the last 10 minutes.
I am loving this recipe – in fact adding it to my menu plan this week!
This is a great idea, actually. When I make enchiladas, almost without fail the corn tortillas will crack–even when I’ve soften them/warmed them/done everything I’m suppose to! So this is like a Mexican lasagna, in a way.
Love your blogs, Kathy, keep up your great work!
Thank you, Susan! ~ Kathy