Stacked Chicken Enchilada Casserole

​Sometimes life takes precedence over dinner and even my best plans get thrown out the window.  Ryan had a serious eye injury a few weeks ago while he was riding his bike and he we had to make an emergency visit to the eye doctor.  Fortunately, it was not something too serious. --- In my world - a ripped cornea sounds serious but apparently in the optometry world - it's minor.  I can tell you that in Ryan's world - it's extremely painful!  But, thanks to a fabulous eye doctor, he was on the mend in no time.  

He healed so quickly in fact that he playing in a double header baseball game the following day.  He also competed in a dualathon on the second day.  (Seriously don't think you would ever get me on a bike again if I rip my cornea on a bike.)  He was not going to let this setback stop him so we headed over to Blanket's Creek to cheer him on in his 5 mile run and 11 mile bike race.  

​So back to my point that I made at the beginning, sometimes life gets in the way of my dinner plans.  I had put together a pan of stacked chicken enchiladas from Cooking Light on the day that I rushed Ryan to the eye doctor - just before closing time.  I LOVE our optometrist but unfortunately, the office is 40 minutes away which meant that dinner plans had to be put on hold.  Fortunately, Ben came to the rescue and when he got home, he popped the pan into the oven and by the time we got home from the doctor and the pharmacy, dinner was nearly ready.  (Better late then never.)  I love make ahead recipes and even though I had to modify this recipe quite a bit, I still think it's a keeper. 

That was probably way more information than you ever wanted to know so without further ado, here is the recipe.

Stacked Chicken Enchilada Casserole
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
7 ounce can salsa verde
12 corn tortillas
3 ounces colby jack cheese

​Shred chicken and add cumin and salt. (I used my leftover chicken from a roasted chicken.)

Saute onion and garlic and a teaspoon of oil.

Add a tomatoes and simmer until reduced slightly.

Add to chicken mixture.

Combine salsa verde, cilantro and lime juice.

In a 7x11 inch pan, spoon 1/4 cup salsa into bottom.

Top with 4 overlapping tortillas.

Top with half of the chicken mixture.

Repeat layers.  End with a third layer of tortillas and the remaining salsa mixture.

Top with cheese and bake for 15 minutes at 425.  (Or cover and refrigerate and bake later.)

​And the baked version looks something like this...

Ben and I both liked this yummy meal - the kids were not as thrilled about it.  Ryan was understandably, not very hungry as he had just been through a traumatic eye exam and Courtney somehow managed to pick all of the chicken out of her piece and leave everything else on her plate.  (I'm not even sure how she managed to deconstruct her enchilada but somehow she did.)  I'm still going to make this again.

Ciao!

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