Chicken Enchilada Lasagna
{Chicken Enchilada Lasagna ready for the freezer or oven.}
This is an adaptation of a recipe my husband grew up on and that we made a lot in our early marriage. I don’t cook with a lot of cream soups these days so I’d forgotten about the enchilada casserole until recently when I pulled out an old family cookbook. I made it again, of course freezing one for later, and my kids loved it. In fact my picky five-year-old claimed it was the BEST.THING.EVER. I served it with a sides of warm black beans, tortilla chips, and plenty of salsa.
Perhaps it’s a dish your family will enjoy as well?
Chicken Enchilada Lasagna
Author/Source:
Pam @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
- 1 pound chicken breast, cooked and chopped
- 2 cups Mexican blend cheese, shredded
- 10.5 ounces cream of chicken soup
- 10.5 ounces cream of celery soup
- 1.5 cups sour cream
- 4 ounces diced green chilies
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 8 medium flour tortillas
Directions:
In a bowl, mix soups, sour cream, chiles, and cumin. In a 9″ baking dish, layer lasagna-style: soup mixture, chicken, cheese, tortilla. Repeat 2 times, ending with cheese. Bake uncovered, at 425F for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and enchiladas are heated through. Serve with salsa if desired.
Freezing Directions:
After preparing, do not bake. Instead, seal, label, and freeze. To serve: Thaw in fridge then bake as directed above.
I made this the other night, but we do not like cream soups (and they really are not very healthy) so I used just red enchilada sauce instead, ours were with corn tortillas in the crock pot. (I think it was a 24 oz can of sauce with 6 tortillas).
This looks great. What size baking dish do you recommend?
Either a 9×13, or two 8×8 pans would probably be best.
I just finished assembling mine. Can’t wait to try one tonight!
I used two pie pans. It made assembly super-easy, since they’re circular like the tortillas
That’s so smart! I always hate when the tortillas don’t line up correctly!
Do the flour tortillas get soggy in this recipe? I tried a casserole with flour tortillas once (I substituted them for corn tortillas) and my husband was not a fan. Other than that this recipe sounds like one I’ll be bookmarking. I love chicken enchiladas and casseroles.
Yeah, they do get a bit soggy with all the sauce (although truthfully I’ve never had an unsoggy enchilada). I usually cook them until they get a bit crusty on top though.
YUM! Looking forward to making this
Hi, I’m totally new to this. How do you seal and freeze a pan of enchiladas?
Cover the pan with foil or put a lid on it (depending on what you are using) and then place it in the freezer.
I made this last night and everyone enjoyed it. And I loved how easy and quick it was. Also the tortillas weren’t soggy at all in ours, they actually turned out a little crisp in spots, which was great.
Do you think you could use low fat sour cream or do you have to use full fat?
Absolutely! I only buy fat free, so that’s what I use.
[...] items listed in blue on the spreadsheet this week and we’ve already had two great recipes: chicken enchilada lasagna (even better the next day) and in place of the salmon gravlax, an incredibly tasty muffuletta [...]
Sorry if this is a stupid question but I’m new at this. Is this recipe for one pan or is it for dinner tonight and 1 in the freezer? The reason I ask is because it calls for 8 tortillas but you only repeat the layering a few times. Thanks!
The amounts listed in this recipe are for just one casserole. If you want two (one for tonight and one for the freezer), double it.
.
No stupid questions here
[...] 4. Chicken Enchilada Lasagna [...]
Any idea what the nutritional information is on this one?
We only do that for the Diet menu but you can use resources like this one to figure it out: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Just want to mention, my fiance has NEVER asked me to make the same meal two nights in a row, and he doesn’t eat leftovers, because I have a three-day limit on them.
I have made this three times, in the past WEEK. Each time I assemble one for the freezer, he says, “Awesome, enchilada lasagna for dinner again!”
But, I also used turkey instead of chicken, because we had a lot leftover from Thanksgiving, and didn’t have any green chilies on-hand, and he doesn’t like cream of celery, so I used a 26oz can of cream of chicken. (Yes, he’s a picky eater, I know!)
And the first time I made it, I assembled it like in the picture, and just set my timer for 20minutes, not thinking about the cheese on top. It turned “crispy” but he loves cheese, so he ate it up no problem. The last two times, I waited until about five minutes before it was done heating, and added the cheese, and it looks SO great, and smells delicious!
Thanks for this recipe, it’s so fast, easy, and my fiance happily ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning!
Wow, that sounds like success!! Thanks for sharing
My enchilada lasagna is in the oven right now, and I’m very excited to eat it! I used tomato and green chiles. I was curious as to why you cook the chicken before placing it in the oven. It seems the oven would cook it, but then I thought it could be a health concern with touching the soup mixture. Can you clarify this for me? Thanks!
When you cook these in the oven it mostly just warms them through and melts the cheese, so I recommend cooking the chicken first to make sure it gets cooked all the way through.
Do you know if the homemade cream soup mixes do well with this type of recipe once recipe has been frozen? I was wondering if it would seperate and look icky. By making the dry mix of the cream soup it cuts out alot of the additives and sodium. The dry mix consists of dry milk powder, cornstarch, onion flakes, dries basil, thyme and water along with what ever flavoring your looking for added when on stove top cooking to thicken to a soup. Thanks for your reply ahead of time.
They usually do just fine. . .we freeze them in dishes all the time or on their own.
mmmm, My parents make these as enchiladas so they make the mixture of soups and chicken (after cooking of course) and all that but instead of layering it they put some of the sauce and chicken and cheese mix into the tortilla and roll it. 10 burrito size flour tortillas fit into the pan, but I don’t recall if it’s a 9×13 or 11×15, but I think it might be the 11×15 one. Just roll them and line them up. Put any extra mix and some cheese over the top of them and bake!
This looks delicious but my husband doesn’t eat any meat and I’m not a big fan of cooking it either, so I was wondering if you have any ideas of what I could substitute the chicken for? I’m not sure if the ground beef substitute would taste right with this. Thank you!
Maybe mushrooms and cream of mushroom soup? Sometimes I add black beans, so that might be good instead. Or just leave the meat out.