This Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole Is a Must-Make
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I love food photography. My biggest distraction at work is not celebrity babies or funny internet memes — it’s pictures of food. I like to look at fancy restaurant food that looks like it was assembled with tweezers and a magnifying glass, and refrigerators full of meal-plan lunches, but every once in a while I’ll pass a photo of something that makes me want to tilt my head back and make a deep guttural noise like Homer Simpson.
It’s not normally the fancy things, or the neat and pretty recipes that provoke that response — it’s the messy, homemade dishes full of sauce, layers, and melted cheese. Just looking at them, you know you’re going to need some extra napkins.
This verde chicken enchilada casserole is a layered mess of beauty, and it’s the sort of thing you can just look at and know it’s delicious. (Nothing with that much cheese can be bad.) It starts with a homemade green enchilada sauce, which only takes about 15 minutes to make, and then can be kept in the refrigerator for use on anything. This enchilada sauce is mild, but you can go ahead and make it spicy if that’s how you and your audience prefer it.
Once you have the sauce, the rest of the recipe is simple. Onions and a variety of peppers are sautéed until they’re soft, then mixed with beans, corn, cooked chicken, and some of the enchilada sauce. Then it’s arranged in layers in a baking dish, starting with the sauce, then tortillas, filling, and cheese. Then do it all over again, ending with sauce and cheese on top, and bake the dish until the cheese is melted and delicious.
The recipe makes a lot, but that’s great, because this is just the sort of thing that is sure to be a hit with a crowd. Or just keep it all for yourself, because the leftovers are fantastic.
Get the Recipe: Verde Chicken Enchilada Casserole from Gimme Some Oven
