King Ranch Chicken

[Jaymes]

King Ranch Chicken

My recipe calls for garlic salt which is what I have put here. But, want to point out that the soups and the cheese have a great deal of salt already in them and, as our family is trying to cut back on our salt intake, I use garlic powder instead. So, use your own judgment.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Most people chop the chicken. Don't do that. With your hands, tear it into large bite-sized chunks; in other words, so that as many pieces as possible are big enough to get a good taste of chicken, and lots of them are big enough that you have to cut them once with your fork to handle them gracefully.

When you just take your knife and chop up the chicken, it all blends into a big gloppy morass with no interesting interplay of textures. Think about it: when you're eating a chicken casserole, don't YOU poke around for the nice big pieces??? So - make your chicken good and tender and flavorful, and then give everyone nice big pieces of it to enjoy.

Sometimes, just before serving, I garnish with sliced black olives and fresh chopped green onions, and maybe even a dollop of sour cream.

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Stewing Chicken

• 1 fryer - 3-4 lbs
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 1 onion coarsely chopped
  
• 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
  
• 1 clove garlic
  
• seasoned salt & pepper to taste
  

Assembly

• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
  
• 8 oz Cheddar cheese (depending on how much you like cheese) grated
  
• 12 corn tortillas
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
  
• chile powder to taste
  
• garlic salt
  
• 1 can RoTel Original Tomatoes w/chiles
  

Stew fryer in seasoned water just to cover. Cool and remove meat from chicken, leaving it in large bite-sized chunks, reserving stock.

Combine soups and grated cheese. Soak tortillas in reserved chicken stock until soft, but not falling apart. Arrange half of the tortillas in the bottom of a greased 9x12 glass baking dish. Arrange half of chicken over. Sprinkle with half of chopped onion and bell pepper. Dust with chile powder and garlic salt. Spread with half of soup/cheese mixture. Layer second half of tortillas, then remaining chicken, onion, peppers, chile powder, garlic salt, ending with the remaining half of the soup/cheese mixture.

Pour a can of Rotel over all. The juices should come about halfway up the side of the casserole. If not, add a little more stock.

Bake uncovered at 375º for 30 minutes or til casserole is bubbly and heated throughout.

This is better made a day ahead of time, then refrigerated and reheated before serving. That allows the flavors to meld.

Keywords: Main Dish, Chicken

( RG429 )