By A thaw this week — forty-five degrees on Wednesday, which in February Iowa feels like Bermuda. The snow melted in patches, revealing the brown lawn underneath, and the air had a dampness to it that smelled like the earth remembering it was alive. Jack went outside and stood in the backyard and breathed deeply and said, "I can smell the soil waking up." Kevin, from the door: "He can smell soil?" Me: "He can smell everything. He's a Weber." The conversation ended. The truth was stated.
I made chicken enchiladas for dinner — a recipe I've been making for years but never wrote about because enchiladas feel too ordinary to document. Shredded chicken, cheese, green chile sauce from a can (I'm not making enchilada sauce from scratch, draw the line somewhere), rolled in flour tortillas, topped with more cheese, baked until bubbling. It's a Tuesday night meal, which makes it a weeknight hero, the kind of food that gets dinner on the table in forty minutes and makes everyone act like you spent all day cooking. The secret is the green chile sauce. And the cheese. And the fact that anything wrapped in a tortilla is automatically better than the sum of its parts.
Noah's been talking about high school. He's twelve, finishing seventh grade this year, and high school is two years away but already on the radar. He wants to take engineering courses. He wants to join the advanced robotics team. He wants to take AP Physics. He told me this at the dinner table with the same calm certainty he brings to everything, and I thought about him at ten, taking apart the smoke detector, and I thought: the line from there to here was always straight. He just needed time to walk it.
Jack's mystery seedlings are six inches tall. Still a secret. Marcus and Jack have formed an agricultural intelligence unit that communicates via coded notes at school and encrypted messages on the family iPad. I found a note that said "Stage 3 complete. Transition to hardening imminent." I think they're growing pumpkins. I think the mystery is giant pumpkins. But I don't know, and the not-knowing is part of the joy, because watching your child have a secret that involves botany is the opposite of a problem.
The green chile version I make is looser than a traditional enchilada — more of a casserole, which means fewer rolling steps and more time standing at the door watching a twelve-year-old explain his future to me over a plate of melted cheese. Green Chile Chicken Casserole is the honest name for what I’ve been making all these years, and it turns out someone already wrote it down properly, which is more than I ever did. If forty-five degrees in February smells like hope, this dish tastes like it.
Green Chile Chicken Casserole
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (rotisserie works perfectly)
- 2 cans (10 oz each) green chile enchilada sauce
- 1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles, drained
- 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 8 small flour tortillas, cut into strips
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Fresh cilantro and sliced green onions, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Make the filling. In a large bowl, stir together the shredded chicken, green chile enchilada sauce, diced green chiles, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, garlic powder, and cumin. Season with salt and pepper.
- Layer the casserole. Spread a thin layer of the chicken mixture across the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange half the tortilla strips over the top, then spoon half the remaining chicken mixture over the tortillas. Sprinkle with 1 cup Monterey Jack and 1/2 cup cheddar.
- Repeat layers. Add the remaining tortilla strips, then the rest of the chicken mixture. Top evenly with the remaining Monterey Jack and cheddar.
- Bake. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes, until the cheese is golden and bubbling at the edges.
- Rest and serve. Let the casserole sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Garnish with cilantro and green onions if desired. Serve directly from the dish.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 480 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 980mg