An Uncomplicated Life Blog: Pulled Chicken Fiesta Casserole

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Pulled Chicken Fiesta Casserole

You know how I roll. I get inspired by a recipe on Pinterest, am totally incapable of following it exactly, and end up with something all my own.

Voila! How I arrived at Pulled Chicken Fiesta Casserole.

It is SO HARD for me to type or say casserole. My inner-Minnesotan is dying to call it hotdish. Casserole sounds ugly. But a hotdish?! Now that will cure what ails ya!

I saw this recipe on Pinterest, but wanted to add a little more to make it a complete meal. It turned out swell!

Without further adieu, the hottest selling hotdish south-side of the Mason-Dixon:



Pulled Chicken Fiesta Casserole Hotdish


Ingredients:
- 2 large bone-in, skin on chicken breasts (because they're tastier than plain boobies, and all the extras will be removed anyway)
- 2 bell peppers (I used red and yellow)
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 large or 2 small/medium sweet potatoes
- 4-5 hand fulls of crushed tortilla chips
- 1 jar fire roasted chili salsa (my apologies if you don't live in Texas and have access to the amazing local brands here. Please don't use Pace. That will ruin this dish.)
- 3T olive oil
- 1t garlic powder
- 1t cumin, divided
- 1t chili power, divided
- 1t Mexican oragano
- 2/3C shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts in a glass/Pyrex pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powser, half the cumin, and half the chili powder. Bake for 40 minutes. Take out of the oven, and set aside to cool.

Dice the onions and peppers. In a large pan, heat the olive oil and sweat the onions for about five minutes. Add the peppers and cook for three more minutes. Add the tomatoes. Stir in salt, pepper and remaining spices.


Peel and microwave sweet potatoes for three to five minutes, depending on size. Dice into bite sized chunks and place in the bottom of your greased baking dish. Sprinkle with black beans, set aside.

Fork or pull apart the cooled chicken into bite sized pieces, discarding the bones and skin. Add to the onion/pepper/tomato mixture. Take hand fulls of tortilla chips and crush them into the mixture to adsorb excess liquid. Cook for a few more minutes to thicken.

Spread the chicken/tomato/pepper/onion/tortilla chip mixture evenly over the sweet potatoes and black beans. Spoon salsa on to the dish, then top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and golden brown.


You could also make this a day in advance without baking, then pop it in the oven for an easy (like, way easy) weeknight meal. Boom.

Enjoy! This was a good one. We ate the whole pan (I'm going to guess that was eight servings...) in two days. Two people ate eight servings in two days. Thank God for elastic waist pants, no?


14 comments:

  1. This sounds so good!! We wouldn't have any leftovers either LOL xo, Biana - BlovedBoston

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  2. Mmmm! I've been loving your recipe posts lately! Thank you!

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  3. I. am. drooling. Pinning this for later!!

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  4. and here I am wondering what to make for dinner. sold. Yes Pace is nastyyyyy. and I never follow a pinterest recipe exactly either - especially with seasoning and veggies. I think in Canada those are yams tho, not sweet potatoes. our sweet potatoes got a white looking flesh.

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  5. Nice one!! Love a good casserole type meal!

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  6. HOLY YUM! Love dishes like this, and this looks amazing :)

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  7. Yum!! I think I can tweak this to make it work for my capsule kitchen. I don't know how you like your salsa but El Paco Restaurant Style salsa is really good! I've only ever found it at Kroger (and it was on a totally random shelf next to the cheese case), but it's the bomb. Their chips are really good too. If you like Tex-Mex style chips and salsa, I bet you'd love them.

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  8. Ok, so when I come visit in August can you please just have this ready for me in a Tupperware? This looks like a recipe that is right up my alley. Yummy!

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  9. Mmmmmmmmm... This looks so delish! Definitely a recipe I am going to try! Thanks for another what-I'm-sure-will-be-superb one!

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  10. This looks interesting! I can't wait to try it!

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  11. This looks interesting! I can't wait to try it!

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  12. yum yum yum and it looks doable. I might actually be able to make this!

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  13. Thanks for adding this recipe to The Healthy Eating Habit link party. We appreciate it and hope you will party with us again.

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  14. This sound so good, thanks for sharing this delicious looking recipe.

    Simon

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