Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Oh boy! After a week of meals come Friday night, I am ready to call the pizza delivery man! But I forced myself to pull out one more meal. ((Who am I kidding, there is a meal coming for Saturday too!)) I sure am glad I persevered! This one was a total winner. The entire herd larped it up — there was even an elbow jab or two for the last crispy bits.

I started with some leftover chicken breast I cooked earlier in the week. I simply slow cooked a few pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast with some chicken stock & onions. ((In preparation for this meal, I just reheated the chicken.)) Rotisserie chicken would work well for this recipe too.

Before I get to the casserole though, let me pause and tell you about this most delicious and simple recipe for homemade enchilada sauce. Trust me, you will never want to used canned again!

Here is the short list of ingredients:

• Chili powder – I used mild Hatch GREEN chili powder. I highly recommend getting your hands on MILD chili powder is you have a herd of tender-tongued kiddos like I do. Mild chili powders are available online, I purchased mine during a recent trip to NM. The recipe works for any chili powder, red or green, mild or hot. I will warn you the heat of the chili powder is magnified as it cooks.
• Cumin
• Dried Mexican Oregano
• Garlic Salt
• Oil – I used non-GMO canola
• Flour
• Chicken Stock or Water
• Possibly more salt to taste

In a medium mixing bowl ((or the saucepan)) combine all ingredients. As you add the liquid, vigorously whisk until liquid is smooth and free of flour clumps.

Place saucepan over a medium flame and bring the enchilada sauce to a low boil. Continue cooking until desired thickness is reached. How easy is that. And the flavor – it’s really out of this world, table slapping good.

Once my sauce was made, I added a block of cream cheese, because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I stirred until the cream cheese was completely incorporated into the enchilada sauce and no lumps remained. You will not want to boil the cream cheese sauce – it will break. Yeah, they say don’t cry over spilled milk – but I do cry over a broken sauce. Don’t boil; it will break and I will cry.

Once the cream cheese green enchilada sauce was ready, it was just a matter of layering the chicken & sauce with corn tortillas and shredded Monterey Jack cheese then topping it all off with white corn chips and more cheese.

I placed it in the oven until everything was crisp bubbly.  

It was so perfectly good. I can’t think of one improvement I would make to this recipe…Okay, I can think of one. Next time I will double it.

We literally licked the dish clean. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did & relish in the wonderful sense of satisfaction that can only come from making good homemade food for your family. I mean people, get excited! You can now make your own enchilada sauce — that is MAJOR!