Retro King Ranch Chicken Casserole
20 May 2010 10 Comments
in comfort food, food traditions Tags: king ranch chicken, recipe
I normally start meal planning by asking my husband whether there’s anything we haven’t eaten in a while that he’d like me to fix. I was a little surprised when his response was “king ranch chicken.” I was not so surprised when, in the next breath, he said, “The real one – like your mom makes.” Like the one my mom makes … with cans of condensed soup and Ro-Tel tomatoes. Whee! Honestly, you can’t blame him.
Old school King Ranch Chicken Casserole is the ultimate comfort food — a slightly spicy, cheesy combination of tortillas, chicken, cream and peppers.
While this is the retro recipe, I substitute in my homemade “cream of” recipe and use fresh tomatoes and chiles rather than Ro-Tel. The taste and consistency is the same.
Ingredients
- 1 roasted 2 1/2 – 3 lb chicken (cook with cumin, onion, celery and garlic … or use a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket), remove skin and shred the meat. I usually end up with 4 – 4 1/2 cups
- 10 corn tortillas
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, seeded and deveined, diced
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 can of Ro-Tel tomatoes (or two cups of diced fresh tomatoes with 1/4 cup of diced green chiles, such as a jalapeno)
- 1 teaspoon chile powder
Directions
Heat oven to 350.
Combine soup, broth, Ro-Tel tomatoes and chile powder, and then blend until smooth.
Layer the ingredients in a greased casserole dish: chicken, tortillas, onion, bell peppers, cheese, sauce. Repeat, ending with cheese.
Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes until brown and bubbly.
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in comfort food, food traditions, leftovers, recipe Tags: beef gordita filling, gorditas, gorditas filling, masa, mexican food, recipe
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