Chicken Enchilada Casserole
One of my favorite meals is cheesy chicken enchiladas. This has been my birthday dinner for years. My husband always makes it for me and he always makes the enchilada sauce from scratch (based on an old Martha Stewart recipe from an old magazine). Of course, I haven’t had any of my beloved enchiladas since going paleo because I just haven’t been able to come up with a good tortilla recipe (if you have one, please tell me!!). I decided to go ahead and make this anyway. We just turned it into a casserole instead of enchiladas.
Enchilada Casserole
I don’t eat much dairy, but I do sometimes add cheese to recipes. If you are dairy free, just leave the cheese out. I personally can’t imagine my enchiladas without at least a little cheese.
A little cheese on top is optional
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 3 red Thai chilis
- 400 grams (12oz can) of canned tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 scallion (or use more onion)
- 2 Tablespoons of ghee (or butter)
- 1 cup of chicken broth (we make our own)
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the filling:
- 350 grams (12 oz) of cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
- 1 red bell pepper. chopped
- 1 onion, sliced
- shredded cheese of your choice (we used about 1 ounce-30gms- of cheddar)
Instructions
For the sauce:
- Chop the garlic, bell pepper, onion, scallion and chilis.
Chop! Chop!
- Fry them up in the ghee (butter) until the onions and scallions are translucent.
- Add the cumin and oregano and cook for about 1 minute.
Cooking the sauce
- Then add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, broth and salt.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Cook for 15 minutes
- Pour into a blender and whiz until smooth.
Finished sauce after it comes out of the blender
For the filling:
- Fry the red bell pepper and onion together in a frying pan with a little bit of ghee until tender.
- Add in the chopped or shredded cooked chicken. We roasted a chicken the day before. We used the chicken meat for this recipe and boiled the carcass to make the broth called for in the sauce.
Putting it all together:
- Spoon 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish.
- Add a layer of filling.
Layering the sauce and filling
- Repeat sauce and filling layers until you run out. Top with grated cheese (optional).
- Bake in a pre-heated 375 F (190 C) oven for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly (everything is already cooked).
- Garnish with fresh cilantro and spring onions and enjoy!
Yum!
Ingredients
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 3 red Thai chilis
- 400 grams (12oz can) of canned tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 scallion (or use more onion)
- 2 Tablespoons of ghee (or butter)
- 1 cup of chicken broth (we make our own)
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 350 grams (12 oz) of cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
- 1 red bell pepper. chopped
- 1 onion, sliced
- shredded cheese of your choice (we used about 1 ounce-30 gms- of cheddar)
Instructions
- Chop the garlic, bell pepper, onion, scallion and chilis.
- Fry them up in the ghee (butter) until the onions and scallions are translucent.
- Add the cumin and oregano and cook for about 1 minute.
- Then add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, broth and salt.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Pour into a blender and whiz until smooth.
- Fry the red bell pepper and onion together in a frying pan with a little bit of ghee until tender.
- Add in the chopped or shredded cooked chicken. We roasted a chicken the day before. We used the chicken meat for this recipe and boiled the carcass to make the broth called for in the sauce.
- Spoon 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish.
- Add a layer of filling.
- Repeat sauce and filling layers until you run out. Top with grated cheese (optional).
- Bake in a pre-heated 375 F (190 C) oven for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly (everything is already cooked).
- Garnish with fresh cilantro and enjoy!
47 Comments
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Holy hot tamale!!! I will be make this. Thanks for another great post!!
Hi Rach,
These are pretty adaptable and you can throw whatever you like into them. Hope they turn out for you if you decide to make them 🙂
Do I drain the canned tomatoes—or use the juice?
Hi John,
I just dumped the whole can in….juice and all. Enjoy 🙂
Just made this…. delicious!!! I will never eat enchiladas out again.
Hi Jamie,
Oh I’m so glad you liked this recipe! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Have you ever, or would it work to add a bean (black or kidney) and perhaps quinoa to the filling?……….Make it more burrito than enchilada? Just curious. Sounds great as is though.
Hi Gina,
No, I never have but I think this is pretty adaptable and you could add just about anything that sounds good to you and fits into the way that you eat. You could also use ground beef instead of chicken.
Made this tonight and it was amazing!!!! Absolute keeper recipe, my entire family loved it. I plan on making cilantro lime cauliflower rice to eat with this next time as I think it would be great paired together. Thanks for a great recipe.
Hi Kristin,
I’m so glad that you and your family enjoyed it! Yum…cilantro lime cauliflower rice sounds delicious. thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and give me feedback 🙂
can I substitute Thai Chili Pepper with another pepper as I am having a hard time finding
them?
Hi Nadine,
Sure you can. Any little spicy hot pepper will do. Another name for Thai chili peppers is Birds Eye Peppers. Also a jalapeno pepper would work. I hope you enjoy it if you make it 🙂
i just had to jump on as soon as i tasted the sauce and say how delicious it is.. i could just eat the sauce!!! I haven’t even finished the whole dish. My daughter is at the age where she has decided what she will and wont eat! And most things need SAUCE! She is going to love this..
Hi Maria,
Thanks for taking the time to leave me feedback. I’m so glad that you like it 🙂 Everything is better with sauce!
Making this tonight – looks amazing! Even the male is looking forward to it, and he rarely eats the same things as me!
And it was amazing! The boys complained that I didn’t make enough! Yum yum yum!!!
Hi Alex,
YAY! I’m glad the men in your life enjoyed it 🙂 I like to make a double batch of the sauce so that I can freeze some. It’s great to be able to just pull a bag out of the freezer to defrost and throw over some meat.
I made this yesterday and it was amazing! I didn’t have everything so I used what I had. Chipotle chili powder instead of cumin, jalapeño instead of the Thai chili, an orange pepper instead of red, and I sautéed it all in coconut oil instead of butter. I did put cheese on top and it was sooooo good! Even my husband liked it, and he doesn’t like any of the Paleo recipes I have tried. Quite frankly, it’s been really hard finding good Paleo recipes. I’m so glad I found you!
Hi Debbie,
I’m glad you found me, too! Thanks for the feedback. I’m happy to hear that your husband liked it 🙂
Made this today and holy moly it’s good!!!! The sauce is amazing!! Thank you!!!
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how it turned out. So glad to hear that you liked it 🙂
Lisa these are awesome. Good as tortillas http://cassidyscraveablecreations.com/2012/07/grain-free-crepes-tortillas.html.
Thanks for the tip Angie!
This is so good…But was wondering what is the calories and nutrition on this recipe
Hi Chris,
I have no idea. I don’t count calories. There is nothing calorie dense about the recipe though, except for the cheese. If you are concerned about calories I would just use a small amount or none at all. You could try running it through a calorie counter site like http://www.fitday.com
Thank you so much..Yes to me it is healthy with all the veggies but I used olive oil in the place of butter.I log all my foods on myfitnesspal so I was just wondering I know it can’t be to bad because there is no tortilla in it like most recipes..Thanks for sharing recipe!!!
Oh it looks so good!!! How many people is this recipe for?
Hi Natacha,
Well, it has 12 ounces of cooked chicken so it would serve 4 people about 3oz each which would be enough if you had a side dish and a salad to go with it. We are two and we had enough left over for lunch the next day. Enjoy 🙂
The red Thai chili will be too hot for my kids. What substitute do you recommend?
Hi Michele,
You could just leave them out or use just one or half of one. The seeds and the white pith part on the inside are where the heat really is so if you clean all that out, ading just one might not be too hot. You could also try mild green or red jalapeno pepper. Good luck 🙂
Since when was cheese part of a paleo diet?
Hi Mike,
There is no one perfect way to be paleo. Dairy is one of the grey areas. After 30 days without, many people reintroduce it to see how they respond. Most of the paleo movement leaders (Robb Wolf, Chris Kresser, Mark Sisson, Stephan Guyenet) talk quite a bit about whether or not you should include dairy in your diet. It seems to be agreed that full fat dairy (raw and not pasteurized) is ok if you tolerate it. Have a read here from this article by Chris Kresser (he references several studies related to dairy): http://chriskresser.com/dairy-food-of-the-gods-or-neolithic-agent-of-disease
I personally include ghee, whole fat cream and occasional small amounts of raw full fat cheese.
This was fabulous! I was worried about Paleo and not being able to enjoy my must have Mexican food, but thanks to this recipe, I don’t have to worry! It will be added to my rotation. Thank you!
Hi Ali,
I know, right? I love Mexican food 🙂 So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
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I really enjoyed this, thanks so much for the recipe. I don’t eat dairy so I left out the cheese and garnished with spinach. I know, not much of a substitute but I also added about half a can of coconut milk to the sauce and it made it nice and creamy. Just wanted to share that in case you wanted to give it a go 🙂
Hi Jayme,
Great ideas for additions 🙂 Happy you enjoyed it!
I made this recipe 2 days ago and it was absolutely delicious. I actually licked the plate cause the sauce was so good. I’m making it again today.
Hi Richard,
Glad you liked it! I’m a plate licker myself 😉
We made this last night and it was delicious! Thanks for making this transplanted (to Switzerland) Los Angeleno very happy.
You are so nice Stephanie! But, I’m pretty sure it’s not hard to beat Swiss Mex 😉
just made this today for the Super Bowl and it was amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this.
Hi Meridith,
So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/152981718569309355/
I tried these tortillas the other night and they were great! They held together great and worked perfect for my stuffed taco!
Thanks for letting me know Melanie! Glad you enjoyed them 🙂