Mexican Chicken Casserole

Mexican Chicken Casserole

4 chicken breasts

1/2 lb. grated sharp cheddar cheese

12 corn tortillas

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 7-oz. cans Ortega green chile salsa

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 can of water

sautéed onion

Sauté chicken breasts in oil slowly. Cut into bite sized pieces. Cut tortillas into 4 strips. Grease large shallow casserole. Mix following ingredients in one bowl: chicken and mushroom soups, chile salsa, tomato sauce, water and onion. Put some sauce in bottom of pan first; then layer 4 tortillas at a time in a lattice design, 1/3 chicken, 1/3 sauce and 1/3 cheese. Repeat in layers, ending with sauce and cheese. Refrigerate 24 hours. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

Yield: 6 servings.

Good party dish because it can be made ahead.

Submitted by Patricia McGuigan -- San Francisco, CA

Blogger's note: I used an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce. I also couldn't find cans of salsa, and I'm not sure I would have used one if I could find it, so I used Ortega chile verde taco sauce (mild).

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I'm interested to see what the dish tastes like today, because we did not wait 24 hours. It was great without having to wait, so I'm sure it will be even better today.

After a week of running this blog and trying some recipes, we are definitely starting to understand the fascination with cream of something soup. Everything stays moist and has a nice rich texture. As you can see, the dishes don't look all that fabulous, but they do taste good.

This casserole actually tasted something like a chicken tamale. Not bad for 1977. Of course, the snob in me needs to point out that the recipe did come from San Francisco where they have Taquerias that have celebrated decades of existence instead of from Wisconsin where the oldest "taqueria" around is La Bamba. Not exactly the best Mexican food I've ever had.

American "Chow Mein"

American "Chow Mein"

1 lb. hamburger

1 cup chopped onion

2 cups chopped celery

1/3 cup soy sauce

1 cup uncooked rice

1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup

1 can water

Brown hamburger and add to other ingredients in baking dish. Bake 1 hour in a moderate over, stirring occasionally . It may need additional water. Serve with chow mein noodles.

A very good main dish for supper or lunch.

Submitted by Mrs. Edith Anderson of Clayton, WI

Blogger's Note: I opted for cream of chicken on this. It seemed a good choice to offset the darkness of the soy sauce. We used Southern Tsunami brand soy sauce but would also recommend Kikkoman, which is brewed in Wisconsin (Check it out here). I also set a 20 minute timer in order to stir it occasionally. I found this worked very well.

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This was incredibly easy to make. chop up a few things and throw it in a casserole dish. It doesn't get much easier. The ingredients are easy to find, easy to use. The hardest part of the dish was browning the hamburger.

This is what it looked like before baking. Pretty gross.

Once it was finished and served for dinner, we were quite disappointed. It was bland, mushy, brown and unappetizing. Although the concoction was edible, we both agreed that the fate of the leftovers was up in the air. Most likely they will end up in the garbage disposal. This was the worst of casseroles. WE HOPE! There are a lot more to go, and we may not yet have plumbed the depths of casseroledom.

The finished product