Right. I don’t think my friend Cat made this up, but I don’t care. What I do know is, she made it for me. And as far as I’m concerned, if someone makes something for me, they own it.
And now you can own this and give it to all your friends.
Like many of the recipes on this site, you will eat it and think you’d just created a dish o’ pure pleasure. Then you’ll give it to friends and family and they will declare you a Culinary Goddess and bow to you. And yet, you’ll find it took hardly any time at all and not much money.
I like cooking and baking mostly because I like eating. I will try almost anything even if it is fiddly or expensive. That said, it better knock my socks off it is fiddly or expensive. I will not name names, but I once dove into a concoction by a famous cookery queen that required, like, 30 passionfruits and an entire bottle of Cointreau. The ingredients alone cost £50. And the recipe took me about three hours to make. Then it tasted of Cointreau. That’s it. It tasted of Cointreau. I can buy a bottle of Cointreau, pour a snifter and suck it back and all this would take around a minute (not including the purchasing) and it wouldn’t cost £50.
So, trust me Rock Chicks and Rock Gurus, none of my recipes will be like that. But if they are, they’ll knock your socks off.
This has seven ingredients. Seven! And swear you’ll freaking love it!
Cat’s Mexican Chicken Bake
Ingredients
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken
- 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 16oz jar of Salsa (your choice as to hotness factor)
- Green Chilies
- 1-2 packages Monterey Jack Cheese or Cheddar or whatever you like but the cheese has to have flavor and OOMPH!, so not mozzarella
- 1 package of Flour Tortillas (big ‘uns, if they’re smaller, get 2 packages) or you can use corn tortillas
How to do it…
- Okay, I don't have a rotisserie. But in the US, grocery stores do and nearly every one will have freshly rotisseried chickens available for you pretty much at all times. Now, you can rotisserie your own full chicken, or you can go out and buy one. I go out and buy one and while I'm there, make sure I have all the other ingredients.
- After you’re done with that, and you get home, and you're ready to rumble with this recipe, preheat oven at 350F/180C.
- Take your chicken and shred it from the bone. I do this by using a fork and then giving up on the fork and getting in there with my fingers. This should be very easy and you don’t have to be precise. You shouldn’t have big chunks but you don’ t have to spend half an hour shredding every millimeter. Or at least I don’t. That delays me eating it.
- Now, take out a bowl and mix the soups and salsa together.
- Take out your tortillas, keep them in their stack and then cut them up like you’d cut up a pie. In other words, in little triangles.
- Righty ho! You’re ready to build your bake!
- Get out your casserole dish which should be pretty deep. A heads up that we're making a kind of lasagna here....so get ready to layer!
- Start with a bit of the soup mix to coat the bottom. Then cover that with your tortillas, piecing them together so they form a loose layer. More soup goes on that then sprinkle on some chicken, some cheese and some chilies. Then more tortillas, top with soup, chicken, cheese, chiles and keep on going. End with tortillas, layered on top with soup layered on top with cheese (in other words, finish up with the chicken and chilies before the final layer).
- Slap that puppy on a cookie sheet/baking tray and put it in the oven. Bake for one hour. Yes, you read that right, one hour. I thought this was mad and the first time I made it, I baked it for thirty minutes. Um…no. Didn’t work. At all. Do the hour so it can get nice and hot and become all squishy, yummy, cheesy, Mexican goodness.
- Now…for those of you who cannot easily find chilies (these would be the roasted ones, canned or jarred ones), you can skip this step. You can also skip it if you've got folks in your life who cannot handle heat in their food.
Notes
Another great thing about this recipe is you can experiment. Use spiced ground beef. Or slow roasted pork. Different cheeses. Whatever you try, I’m sure it’ll be delicious. I've added drained black beans and they're an awesome addition!