Chicken enchiladas...kinda...

I love enchiladas!  Cheese, beef, chicken, seafood....haven't met an enchilada I didn't like.  Enchiladas are also a very economical dish.  Corn tortillas are cheap, minimal meat required, and any kind of cheese you have in the fridge will do.  The enchilada sauce is the most expensive ingredient at almost $2.00 a can. Yet, I do not like making enchiladas....the process seems to mess up my entire kitchen.  I use a skillet to fry the tortillas, a skillet (or pot or dish depending upon the meat) to cook the meat, a pot to cook the sauce, a grater and bowl for the cheese, and then the baking dish.  So, even though I love this cheap dish, I hardly ever make enchiladas.  But, this morning I woke up craving them.
After perusing several enchilada casserole recipes on Pinterest, and not finding any that matched the idea in my head exactly, I made up my own recipe.  Full disclosure:  the following recipe is a guess at the ingredients I've tasted in several enchilada casseroles at various potlucks through the years - I just don't have a recipe written down anywhere for it, so I made it up as I went today.

Layered Chicken Enchiladas

(I never call anything a casserole in my house, or my husband and children start picking at it and asking for the ingredient list.)

I started with 2 large chicken breasts, which I purchase in bulk at Costco.  They are inexpensive and huge.  I sprinkled them with salt, pepper, onion powder, cumin, and baked them in a glass dish for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  I love the flavor of cumin with chicken or pork, but a little goes a long way, so I only sprinkle this spice on one side of the chicken.  I use onion powder because my husband doesn't like onions and has brainwashed my kids into thinking they don't like onions either.  

 I put the lid on these breasts and let them rest a few minutes before shredding the meat.  

The other ingredients are:

1 large can of green chili enchilada sauce

3 C of shredded cheese (cheddar, jack, colby - any kind will do, but I had monterey jack in the fridge, so that's what I used today)

1 C sour cream

1 dozen corn tortillas (raw - uncooked, unfried, because you don't have to worry about them tearing when you roll them up)

Pam cooking spray

I sprayed my 9x13 glass baking dish, and set aside, leaving the oven heated at 350 degrees after chicken was brought out.

I then shredded the chicken with 2 forks, and mixed in the sour cream, 2 cups of the shredded cheese, and 1/2 cup of the green enchilada sauce.

Then I poured a little of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the baking dish and began layering.  I dip each corn tortilla into the can of sauce (I'm lazy - I suppose you could pour the sauce out into a shallow bowl and dip the tortillas in) and lay them down, overlapping a little at the bottom.  It's o.k. if they tear, in fact you may need to tear a few to fill in the corners and odd spots.

Then I spread half of the chicken mixture evenly over the tortillas.

And, then repeat.  After you've got the third layer of tortillas down, pour the remaining sauce evenly, over the top.  Lastly, sprinkle the remaining cup of cheese over the top and put dish into the preheated oven to bake about 30 minutes.

My family loved it, and ate it up with some sticky white rice and pinto beans.  

It cuts cleanly, and is not runny, but not totally firm either.  I was happy how this turned out, and am glad I didn't use any soup, as some of the recipes I looked at this morning called for.  For those of you that like a little spicier dish, I would suggest using pepper jack cheese.  I imagine that would be yummy.  So, please give this dish a try.  Just don't call it a casserole.