Stacked Chicken Enchilada Casserole

When I cook a whole chicken, I always use the Crockpot. I love cooking my chicken in the Crockpot as it gets so tender and moist that it falls off the bones. And if there is leftover chicken, I enjoy making chicken noodle soup.

This last time I had leftover chicken I ended up making stacked chicken enchilada casserole. My family really seemed to enjoy it.

I didn’t use a recipe per say, I make it up as I go, especially with the ingredients. This time I used my imagination in putting this recipe together. All ingredients listed are approximate, as I didn’t write them down as I threw them in, so you might have to adjust to your liking.

Stacked Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:
2 ½ - 3 c. shredded or cut up cooked chicken
1 small can chopped olives
1 small can Ortega chilies, drained
1 small orange, red or yellow bell pepper
3-4 c. mild cheddar cheese
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bunch spinach, chopped (for sake of prep time, can use one box frozen chopped spinach)
1 jar Enchilada sauce
Corn Tortillas
Seasonings: ½ t. cumin, 1 tsp. salt, ¼ t. black pepper

Mix chicken, olives, chilies, bell pepper, onion and spinach together. Season with cumin, salt and pepper.

Steps: Add ½ c. enchilada sauce on bottom of 9x12 glass pan. Add corn tortillas on top. Add ½ chicken mixture, top with some cheese, add little enchilada sauce and cover with second row of corn tortillas. Layer rest of chicken mixture, cheese, enchilada sauce and last row of corn tortillas. Add all of enchilada sauce to top of casserole and rest of cheese. Bake in a 350º oven for 30-40 minutes until heated through.

For faster prep time, use store purchased cooked rotisserie chicken, enchilada sauce (I make mine from scratch), and frozen chopped spinach.

This is so much easier to make than enchiladas, but with all the flavor.

Dutch Apple Wedges

What was supposed to start out as a sunny Sunday ended up as a rainy “Where did it come from?” day. I was really hoping for a sunny day, this way I would be able to work outside. But alas (who uses that word anymore?) it wasn’t meant to be. I did end up making a dessert called Cutch Apple Wedges and it comes from Betty Crocker Recipe magazine, Simple Winter Meals (Jan. 2003 issue #192). I don’t purchase everyone of those magazines, but I always look through them at the check-out line in the grocery store and if the cover picture looks like something I would make or I find a recipe while I am looking through it and if I have enough money, then yes I will buy it.

But this past year I haven’t had money so I am going through all my old cookbook magazines looking at the recipes again to see which ones I want to try. If there is nothing in the magazine, then I will give the book away to someone else. It doesn’t make sense to keep magazines or cookbooks if I’m not going to use anything in them. But on the other hand, I am keeping all my cookbooks; it is the magazines that will have to go.

Day After

After a short weekend of eating, playing games, more eating, laughing, spending time with our large family of parents, siblings and grandchildren, aunts and cousins, it was time to go back home to the real world.

This time of year is always magical, special and stressful and always is over to soon. We normally stay until after Christmas to help clean up, but this year we left on Christmas Day. We wanted to beat the rain and that didn’t work. We ended up driving home in the rain going only 45 miles an hour and sometimes slower due to it raining so hard. It took 1 ½ hours longer than it should have to get home. The kids were very good throughout the whole trip, so that really helped. Because we were trying to concentrate on the road and other cars and it doesn’t help when we have to turn our head around to yell at the kids.

Tired from all the overly rich food we had, I decided to make a turkey pot pie. Since it was a cold and lazy day, some comfort food sounded really good and my family loves turkey pot pie. I just use the basic turkey pot pie recipe and tweak it to our taste. I always add parsley and celery leaves and if I have any small amounts of vegetables in the refrigerator, I add them into the pot. This time I added bell peppers and broccoli.

Recipe

3 c. water (can also use broth – vegetable or chicken stock)
2 carrots, chopped
2-3 T. chopped parsley
4 potatoes, chopped
1 ½ c. – 2 c. shredded or chopped turkey
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 T. chopped celery leaves (or whatever is on the stalk)
1 ½ t. salt
¼ bell pepper, chopped
1 ½ c. broccoli, chopped
1 T. – 1 ½ T. cornstarch (thickener)

Add all vegetables and spices to 3 c. water and cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes. If to high, lower the heat. Add cornstarch to thicken broth. How juicy or thick you want the stock is a matter of choice.

Preheat oven to 425º. Put into a Pyrex pan (9 x 13 or 8 x 10) and cover with unbaked pie crust. Cook for 30-35 minutes, let rest for 5 minutes and enjoy.

I used the basic turkey pot pie recipe and pie crust recipe from the Betty Croker Cookbook. This can be a little fattening, but everything in moderation and it will be fine.