King Ranch Chicken Casserole

When my family moved to Texas a few years ago, they introduced me to a local casserole that is easy to make and delicious–the King Ranch Chicken Casserole. It combines a lot of my favorite ingredients (meat and garlic) as well as a plethora of interchangeable southwest flavors. This dish is fit for a Texas-sized king, and don’t worry, there isn’t any ranch dressing in there!

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

1 onion (chopped)

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of potato soup (cream of mushroom works well too)

1 (15 oz) can pinto beans

1 (10-ounce) can diced tomato and green chilis (Ro-tel)

1 tsp Mexican chili powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp cumin

12 6-inch corn tortillas (cut like a pizza)

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 bundle green onion (chopped)

Process

Remove all of the innards from the chicken, and then rinse it inside and out. Place the chicken in a large stock pot and cover with water. Adding ingredients like salt, pepper, carrots, celery, etc. will add flavor to the meat and will make the stock that much more delicious. (I added half of an onion (sliced) and a large heap of salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder, as well as some red pepper flakes and it turned out spectacular.)

Bring to a full boil on medium-high heat and then cover for 30-45 minutes, or until the meat is capable of being pulled off of the bone. Rotate the chicken every 15 minutes or so to ensure it cooks on both sides.

When the chicken is done, let it rest for about 10 minutes, remove the meat from the bone, chop it up, and let it sit until needed.

Strain out the solid ingredients and set aside. You can reuse the stock from the pot for soups, stews, etc.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for the onion, cheese and tortillas. You can include the remnants of the chicken stock for added flavor. Mix until combined.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place half of tortilla chips on the bottom of a greased 3-quart baking dish. Sprinkle half of the chicken on top, followed by half of the filling, and half of the cheese. Repeat this process so that there are two layers. If you only have a smaller baking dish, you can make three layers. Sprinkle the chopped green onions on top for color and a little added flavor.

In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil on medium-high heat. Cook the chopped onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add them to the filling.

Place the dish in the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Taste Test

The spice combination turned out great. It complimented the rest of the filling with the cheese bringing it all together. It has that southwest flavor that I was hoping for. The corn tortillas add a great level of texture, almost holding the dish together. The chicken was delicious and gave the dish a nice consistency. The texture of the onions weren’t crunchy, leaving that level of texture out of the dish, but they added a wonderful kick of flavor.

Leftover Quality

The flavor really held true after a night in the fridge. The texture of the tortillas was a little flaky, but that was to be expected. Overall, it was a fine lunch.