Three-Layer Enchilada Casserole

Mariam and I were recently visiting my parents, and before we left, my mother mentioned that she would soon be making an enchilada casserole for some others of the family. At first, we were bummed that we wouldn't be able to taste this, as we were leaving town. But then we thought, well, we could do that, too. And then we thought, well, we might be able to do that better. Then, well, we tried to do it better. My mom doesn't know it, yet, but we were competing for the best enchilada casserole. By default, we win. Sorry.

Anyway, as with most of our cooking these days, this was mostly improvised, so the recipe is largely approximate. Pretend I didn't just tell you that. THIS RECIPE IS PERFECT AND REFINED. Yes. That'll work.

Three-Layer Enchilada Casserole

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 4 Texas servings, 8 New England servings

Ingredients:

• 12 corn tortillas
• 4 chicken thighs
• 2 4 oz. cans hatch green chiles
• 1 7.76 oz. (220g) can chipotle sauce
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 4 oz. pepper jack cheese, grated
• 3 tbsp sofrito
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp oregano
• minced garlic
• lime juice
• fresh chopped cilantro
• salt

Cooking Directions

1. Trim and cut the chicken up in to bite-size pieces. Put about half of it into each of two quart-sized zip plastic bags. In one bag, add the canned chiles, some lime juice to taste (about 2-3 tbsp is good), the sofrito, a tablespoon or so of minced garlic, and salt to taste. In the other bag, add the chipotle sauce, the cumin, and the cinnamon. You may also want to add just a touch of lime juice and salt, as you desire. Close and massage both bags to mix the ingredients and thoroughly coat the chicken pieces. These should marinate in the fridge for several hours or overnight. 
   
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Slice the onions thinly and toss that into the pan, along with another tablespoon or so of minced garlic. (If you like garlic, go for more.) Saute the onions until they begin to turn translucent, at which point you may add the corn and some additional chopped cilantro. Reduce the heat at this point - you're really just heating the corn through, and tossing it now. Transfer the onion-corn mixture to a bowl.
   
3. Turn the heat back to medium-high and pour the contents of one of the bags into the pan. Cook until the chicken changes color - it doesn't have to be totally done through - you're about to bake everything. Fish the chicken out with a slotted spoon into another bowl. Reduce the liquid a bit further until the remaining marinade has a nice thick sauce consistency. Transfer the sauce to another bowl. Repeat this process with the contents of the second bag.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Lightly grease the bottom of your casserole dish with olive oil. The dish should be about 2-1/2 quart capacity, and at least two inches deep. Line the bottom with three corn tortillas, cutting them to size as necessary. They may, and should, overlap a bit.
5. Lay down a generous layer of the cheese, followed by the onion-corn mixture in the bottom of the dish, using perhaps half of each. Cover with another layer of three corn tortillas. Put the red-sauce chicken down next, adding most of the reserved sauce (keep some for garnish). Also add a bit of the onion-corn mixture, keeping some for the last layer. Another layer of tortillas goes down, and then the procedure is repeated with the green chicken.
   
   
6. A final layer of tortillas should go down. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, and place the dish in the oven for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, and use the remaining red and green sauces reserved to garnish the top of the casserole (you've got red, white, and green - make a Mexican flag!). Return to the oven for about 5 minutes. Remove, cool, and serve. 
   

This turned out to be excellent. As I was mixing the green marinade, I initially thought that the amount of lime juice I used was too much, and was worried, but it was really good - so note that, the green marinade should taste a bit too sour when you first mix it. That's fine. We also used a mix on the cans of chiles - one mild, one hot. In retrospect, we probably could have gone with both hot, but judge yourself how much heat you think you can take. We like the heat.

As our competitor was not available for tasting, we win the competition by default due to disqualification. So this casserole is better than my own mother's! (As far as I know.)