King Ranch Chicken is a quentisentially Texan dish.  It’s kind of like a stacked enchilada… but not.  However, one thing that always bothered me about this dish is the use of cans of pre-processed “cream of (fill in the blank) soup”.  This recipe is just as easy in my opinion and yields a dish that is so much better and full of fresh flavor.

This is a perfect dish to split into two smaller casserole dishes to freeze one for later.

King Ranch Chicken
(from Cooks Country magazine)

Ingredients :

12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 med onions, chopped fine
1 – 2 jalapenos, minced (to taste)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 (10 ounce) cans Ro-Tel tomatoes
5 tblsp all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups chicken broth
1-1/2 lbs chicken
2 tblsp minced fresh cilantro
4 cups shredded Cojack (Colby-Jack) cheese
Salt and pepper
2-1/4 cups Fritos crushed

Directions:

Heat oven to 450. Spray tortillas on both sides with cooking spray and place on cookie sheet. Crisp in oven (about 12 minutes) and break into pieces.

Heat butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook onions, chiles, and cumin until lightly browned (about 8 minutes). Add tomatoes and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 10 min). Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add cream and broth, bring to simmer, and cook until thickened (2-3 minutes). Stir in chicken and cook until no longer pink (about 4 minutes). Off heat, add cilantro and cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Spray 13×9 inch baking dish with cooking spray and scatter half of tortilla pieces inside. Cover with half of the filling, rest of tortilla pieces, and then rest of filling.

Bake until filling is bubbling (about 15 minutes). Sprinkle crushed Fritos evenly over top and bake until Fritos are lightly browned (about 10 minutes). Cool and serve.

I love to serve this with a caesar salad using a southwestern caesar dressing.

Print this entry