Booniverse

I’m on a mission to find fun new things to cook either in my 3 quart casserole dish or in a 9 x 13 baking pan. It’s all about the lunch leftovers and the keeping me from boredom. Also, it’s a little about not using the 400 pound cast iron skillet (TheMan usually handles all our cast iron needs) so although the skillet recipes look delicious (and are delicious, at least the two we made) I’m much more a casserole kinda gal.

So I was thinking the other day, what I might casserole up that was interesting (I have lots of boring casserole recipes. Tuna glop? I can make that seven ways to China but in the end, it’s still tuna glop) and I thought, “Ooooo, Mexican sounds tasty!” Then I came up with enchilada casserole and decided to give it a go.

You lucky booniverse readers, this is a boo original.

~10 Corn tortilla shells
4-7 chicken breasts
1/2 onion
24 ounces of mild salsa
1 ripe mystery garden hot pepper.
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 handful garlic chives
1 package shredded Mexican cheese blend
chili powder
salt

Dust chicken with chili powder and salt, cook in 375 degree oven until juices run clear (20 minutes a side is a good estimate).

Combine corn, beans, onion, chives, and mystery hot pepper in a bowl.

Dice chicken.

Spoon salsa into 9 x 13 baking pan until bottom is lightly covered. Layer a single layer of tortillas. Spoon light layer of salsa onto tortillas. Add veggy/bean mix, chicken and the rest of the salsa and spread out evenly over tortillas. Layer tortillas on top. Cover tortillas with cheese.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Take foil off and bake another 10 minutes to melt and slightly brown the cheese. Eat.

Obviously this recipe has some personal touches and I don’t expect people to rush out and buy garlic chives or mystery garden hot peppers. Use a whole onion if you don’t have chives or just axe the chives and stick with the half onion. Both should work.

My chicken breasts were unusually tiny so I had 7 of them. I’ve also had ginormous chicken breasts where 7 would have fed my entire block. Basically, cook up as much chicken as can very loosely cover the area of a 9 x 13 pan (leaving gaps, you don’t need wall to wall chicken). I’d hazard a guess at two cups of chicken. Maybe?

Jalapenos will do if you don’t have mystery garden hot peppers. Or liberally dust the chicken with cayenne pepper. Or buy hot salsa.

Feel free to experiment, this is just how I wound up making the dish.

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2007: JSFR: Calbee Tuna and Mayonnaise Sticks

2006: Welcome to the triple digit booniverse milestone.

2005: I think he makes a wonderful bimbo. After all, he let everyone smell his meat.

2004: That’s what it boils down to and for kicks and giggles I wonder if all you who voted “Yes please! I do not want same sexed couples to have the right to marry!” would do me a favor. Substitute “black” or “Jew” or “mixed race” or “protestant” or “poor” for “same sexed” and read it to yourself.

2003: I’m just not fast enough in my head to spell out Q…U… before my hand begins impatiently making bumpity-bumps waiting for me to get to the rest of the name.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 6:55 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.