Mexican Chicken Bake (Easy Chilaquiles)

chef_cmontes's Note:

I made this recipe for my in-laws and husband who are from Mexico. I was thinking it would be too "americanized" for their tastes, but they LOVED it. They told me that it tasted just like "chilaquiles", which is a dish that they make in a skillet and serve with eggs. Of course my versoin uses more practical ingredients, it's a true Mexican flavor. I serve it with a side of mexican rice, it's YUMMY!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 2 cups chicken , cooked, chopped
• 1 (8 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
• 1 (8 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups cheddar cheese , shreeded (may sub monterey jack or mexican cheese mix)
• 1 onion , diced
• ½ cup bell pepper , diced (red bell pepper looks beautiful in this dish, but green is good too)
• 1 garlic clove , pressed
• ½ cup salsa (any kind you like, I prefer regular thick n' chunky)
• 12 corn tortillas
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon oil

Directions:

1. In a skillet, heat oil, then add onion bell pepper and garlic, Saute until onions are almost translucent (this is especially delicious if you cook this in the same skillet that you cooked your chicken in). Set aside.
2. In a bowl combine, soups, onion.bell pepper, chicken, salsa, chili powder, cayenne, (optional) couple dashes of hot sauce (I use Tapatio) & 1 1/2 cups of cheese; Mix well.
3. In a baking dish (I used a square 9 x 9), grease with a little cooking spray, then lay out four tortillas overlapping. Pour 1/3 of mixture from bowl on top of tortillas. Repeat steps, finally ending with putting the last 1/2 cup of cheese on top.
4. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly. This is a great "freezer-meal", just wrap it up in a freezer dish, pop it in the freezer and thaw before you want to cook it, use the same cooking temp and time.

Reviews

[imatrad]

Well I'm happy to be able to be the first one to rate this recipe! It's GREAT!!! I made a few little tweaks to suit our family's tastes. We all enjoyed it, and many went back for seconds. The adjustments I made were to add some cumin to the onions, red pepper and garlic while they were sauteeing. Also increased the garlic to 3 cloves, upped the chili powder to 1 1/4 tsp.(but keep the cayenne in there too) And just on a personal preference, I doubled the salsa to 1 cup, so that you really couldn't tell that it had cream of anything soup in there! I also just very quickly fried the corn tortillas in hot oil, to soften. I served it with Mexican salad with honey lime dressing #232311 on this site. I'm saving this recipe because I'll be making it again for sure! Thanks chef montes! :)