Enchilada Casserole

Fill a large pot with water and salt it liberally. Throw in the bay leaves and let it boil, then drop in the chicken breasts. Allow them to boil until cooked through, approximately 20 minutes.

While the chicken is boiling, dice up the peppers and onion, and toss them in a skillet over medium heat with some oil. As the veggies sweat, drain 2/3 of the liquid from the tomatoes and discard that 2/3 of the liquid – reserve 1/3 of the liquid. Add the tomatoes, the leftover 1/3 can of liquid, and frozen corn. Stir in the cumin, oregano, chili powder, pepper and salt. All measurements are my preference, and can be adjusted to your taste.

Let the veggies simmer on low heat while you take the cooked chicken breasts from the water and shred them with either two forks or in a food processor. You can also cut them into 1/2 inch cubes if you prefer bigger chunks. Toss the chicken into the veggie skillet, mix everything around together, and turn off the heat.

Grease a 9×13 dish and pour a small amount of enchilada sauce in the bottom, enough to thinly cover the entire bottom. You might think you don’t need to grease it if the sauce is down there, but your tortillas will stick if you don’t. Place 2 tortillas on the sauce, then tear another into pieces to fill in the rest of the space (you are making a full layer of tortillas). This is not rocket science. Just get them in there. Dump 1/2 of the veggie/chicken mix over the tortillas, and spread 1/3 of the cheeses over the mix. Make sure everything is spread evenly, and start over from the beginning: sauce, tortillas, rest of the veggies/chicken, cheese. Do another layer of tortillas if you’re feeling naughty, and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Pop it all in a 350F oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese is ooey gooey awesome. Serve and enjoy!

This is incredibly customizable, so add black beans, green chilies, squash, spinach, mushrooms, red pepper flakes, more or less cheese, more or less tortilla layers, alternate spices to kick up the heat, ground beef or turkey, jalepenos……the possibilities are seriously endless. Let me know what you come up with in the comments!