Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole is quick and EASY WEEKNIGHT DINNER for whole family. It’s simple, comfort food recipe with only 5 ingredients (cheese, chicken, enchilada sauce, corn tortillas and refried beans), but it’s delicious and healthy meal for your family, too.
Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole recipe sounds as a great weeknight dinner idea!!! Just one, simple and easy dish baked in the oven makes complete meal for your family. It doesn’t get much better than that!!!
To tell the truth, I simply LOVE this kind of recipes. Throw a few simple ingredients together, pop it in the oven and voila…. Quick and healthy dinner is ready for my family to enjoy!
In fact, this Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole is just simplified version of classic enchiladas. Rolling the filling in each tortilla separately is time consuming, especially on a weeknight. Therefore, throwing everything together in one casserole is just easy and quick way to make complete meal for a crowd.
This time I cooked chicken breasts in enchilada sauce especially for this recipe. But any type of chicken would work just fine, too. Sometimes I used leftovers cooked or baked chicken if I have it in the fridge or freezer. That makes this recipe super simple and easy. It’s also great idea how to use up leftovers chicken. Rotisserie chicken would work great, too. After all, this is just simple enchilada recipe, it’s not exact science!
If your family like to eat Mexican food for dinner, this Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole will be a huge hit. It’s also perfect fall comfort food.
This Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole has to be at your family dinner table this fall.
EASY WEEKNIGHT DINNER RECIPES FOR YOUR FAMILY :
Cheesy Chicken Crescent Dinner Rolls
Easy Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken
Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole Recipe:
Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole is quick and EASY WEEKNIGHT DINNER for whole family.
30 min
45 min
1 hr, 15
Save RecipeIngredients
1 ½ lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts-thawed (or 2 ½ -3 cups shredded cooked chicken)
2 ½ cups enchilada sauce
3-4 cups shredded cheese (I used combo of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese)
1 small can refried beans
8 large corn tortillas
Instructions
- Place enchilada sauce in a deep skillet and heat until bubbly. Cut chicken breast lengthwise in about ½ inch thick slices, season with salt and pepper to taste and place in enchilada sauce. Cover and cook on medium heat until it cooked trough (it takes about 15-20 minutes).
- Remove the chicken from enchilada sauce and set aside to cool. Using two forks shred the chicken.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- In a large baking dish spread about 4-5 Tbsp. enchilada sauce to cover the bottom. Arrange tortillas to cover the bottom (place 2 tortillas and use smaller pieces of tortilla, like quarters of the circle to cover the bottom).
- Gently spread ½ can refried beans over tortillas.
- Scatter about 1/3 od shredded chicken over beans.
- Pour 1/3 of remaining enchilada sauce over chicken and spread with a spoon.
- Top with 1/3 of shredded cheese.
- Than repeat: 2 tortillas, remaining refried beans, ½ of remaining shredded chicken, ½ of remaining sauce and ½ of remaining cheese.
- Finally, 3rd layer: 2 tortillas, remaining shredded chicken, remaining sauce and cheese.
- Bake about 45 minutes. If the top browns too much, tent the top with aluminum foil.
- Top with sliced green onion and cool slightly before serving (at least 15-20 minutes) or it will be a huge mess (it’s very runny if you slice and serve immediately after baking).
