Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Adventures in Cooking - Chicken Tamale Casserole

Recently, I tried my hand at a new recipe - Chicken Tamale Casserole.

Being born and raised in Texas, Mexican food is in my blood (especially Tex-Mex!) and I like finding healthier casserole recipes so we can have leftovers.  Leftovers = less nights to cook! 

I tried to take pictures while I cooked this time -

Ingredients for bottom layer 


First layer - prior to going into oven

First layer, after baking for 15 minutes - you are supposed to puncture with a fork and as you can see I probably "gouged" rather than punctured - I am thinking maybe it hadn't cooked long enough because my fork was not coming out clean, but, in the end it came out tasting just fine!


Ingredients for top layer - I had Tim grill two extra chicken breasts the night before so I would have them ready for this recipe - I just chopped it up really thinly instead of "shredding" it.  We also substituted green enchilada sauce for the red.


Top layer assembled - ready to bake for 15 more minutes


Finished product!

I always turn on the broiler for at least 2-3 minutes at the end of the cooking time because I like the cheese to brown/bubble a little bit.  I have to be careful to watch the amount of cheese I put on top - I acutally do measure it out so I know the nutritional info for the casserole is accurate (but sometimes I'll put extra on half of it for Tim!).  We both really liked this casserole - satisfies a Mexican craving and is a little different than a regular ole' taco night.  It tasted a little more like enchiladas than a tamale to me, but I'm not too picky! 

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