Cooking Craze - 01/22/2011

So the other night I decided to make dinner for Trey when he came over after work.  I wasn't too sure what to have, so I wandered around online until I came across a nice looking recipe on foodnetwork.com.  Unfortunately, it was a Paula Deen recipe (not a fan of her), but it still tasted pretty good.  It's a good cheap meal for anyone who just wants to mix some ingredients together and stick them in the oven.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

(this photo is from the site -- I forgot to take pictures after I made it)

Ingredients:

• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup

• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cheddar cheese soup

• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (10-ounce) can tomatoes
• 1 whole chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken
• 1 (11 1/2-ounce) package flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by-9-inch pan with the cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the 3 kinds of soup and the tomatoes. Stir in the chicken.

Layer the tortillas and the chicken mixture in the pan, beginning and ending with tortillas. Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes.

Note: After reading the reviews, I altered the recipe a little bit.  Most of the posts complained that the casserole was a bit bland, so before I mixed the chicken in (by the way, I used canned chicken...yes, I'm a broke college student) I put it in a bowl with some olive oil and added some various spices.  I don't remember exactly what they were, but I think I used some cayenne pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and then some salt and pepper and mixed it all up.  And something to keep in mind is that you should over-season the chicken because once it's in the casserole with all of the soups the flavor will even out.

So with the casserole I served some refried beans and yellow rice, as well as tortilla chips with salsa and queso. 

All in all, I wasn't personally a big fan of the casserole.  It had flavor, but it wasn't really anything special.  But Trey and my roommates really liked it, so it isn't a bad recipe.  I'm just picky :P

The original recipe can be found at:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/mexican-chicken-recipe/index.html