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Jill is a Mom, wife, teacher, artist, creative genius, and writer. She works everyday on her blog at SimpleDailyRecipes.com. When she's not home schooling her kids or writing for her blog, Jill likes dancing to Brazilian Jazz while cooking up something good in the kitchen.

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<< English Muffins Turned Into French Toast | Healthy Food Event: Fat Chefs or Skinny Gourmets >>

King Ranch Chicken Casserole Recipe

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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This is the MOTHER of all recipes ever posted on Simple Daily Recipes.

Anyone who’s been around here long enough, knows I don’t cook meals that call for too many steps. In fact, I’m pretty sure the only other extensive recipe I’ve ever posted was Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.

Even though this recipe has a lot of steps compared to my usual recipe format- Folks, believe me when I tell you, it’s ALL WORTH IT IN THE END.
The only regret you will have is that you didn’t double the recipe.

LET’S GET THIS DINNER STARTED

I want to first demonstrate the steps involved. The ingredients and measurements are at the bottom of the post.

Roast the 4 Chicken breasts. Follow my regular roasting technique. Allow the chicken to cool down enough to handle. You can either cut the meat into bite size chunks or shred it. It’s up to you. Set aside.

While the oven is hot, set it to broil and roast one red bell pepper and one poblano pepper. Roast until they start turning black, turning to cook all the sides. My broiler element is old, so it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to get these peppers tender.

Allow peppers to cool, then peel away skins and seed core and discard. You can rinse the peppers after you’re finish cleaning them. It doesn’t remove their flavors in anyway.

Dice all the peppers; start by cutting across making 1/4 inch strips, then cut lengthwise with 1/4 inch cuts.

Voila! Chopped peppers set aside.

Now for making the creamy mushroom sauce from scratch. DON’T be tempted to go buy a can of cream of mushroom to save a step - you’ll ruin the recipe!
Chop onions and mushrooms. Cook in oil and butter until tender.

Add flour, stirring continuously, cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add chicken broth, still stirring until smooth, and cook until sauce starts to thicken, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using a stick blender or regular blender, carefully blend mushroom sauce until pureed. Stir in 1 cup of nonfat sour cream until smooth. Set aside.

Spray a 13×9x2 inch casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Pour about a 1/2 cup of mushroom sauce on the bottom of the pan.

Lay down 6 corn tortillas in pan. Add 1/2 the chopped chicken and top with shredded cheddar and Monterey jack cheese. Drizzle a little cream sauce on top. Save most of it for the top layer.

Lay down another 6 corn tortillas. The rest of the chicken and diced peppers come next. The poblano is too spicy for the kids, so I left it off on one third of the dish. The red bell pepper is sweet, so I dropped a little for color and introduction. Pour on ALL mushroom cream sauce.

Finish with a layer of cheese

Cover with foil.

Starting with a cold oven; place dish on middle rack, set oven to 350F degrees. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

SHOO! You are READY TO EAT the BEST KING RANCH CHICKEN you’ve ever eaten!

NOW FOR THE GROCERY LIST AND MEASUREMENTS

4 chicken breasts, skin on, bone in
a little oil to coat the chicken
1 red bell pepper
1 poblano pepper
4 tablespoons butter (for cream sauce)
1 tablespoon oil (for cream sauce)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups chopped mushroom
4 tablespoons flour
2 to 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup nonfat sour cream
salt & pepper to taste
12 corn tortillas
2 to 3 cups cheddar and jack cheese, blended

Like I said earlier, this dinner IS WORTH EVERY STEP and you really will wish you doubled the recipe.

I sure did and next time, I will.

English Muffins Turned Into French Toast << | >> Healthy Food Event: Fat Chefs or Skinny Gourmets

There Are 15 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Andy on 21 May 2008:

Nice job tackling the extra steps. It certainly looks delicious.
Comment by Jill on 21 May 2008:

Good morning Andy!

Thank you for noticing. I’ve had this recipe on the back burner for 2 weeks. Knowing that most of the readers here prefer simple and quick recipes (I do, too), I wasn’t sure it would be worth my time to actually post this one. You know what I mean?
There’s the time it takes to prepare a meal and then adding in the time to edit images, relive the cooking process in my mind, then write it down in easy to follow instructions. It took 2 1/2 hours to get this recipe posted.

If one person cooks this recipe and comes back to tell me, then I know it was worth writing about.
Comment by Jill on 22 May 2008:

I just wanted to add a note here about the creamy mushroom sauce.

It’s not absolutely necessary to blend the mushrooms and onions with a stick blender or regular blender. You can skip the blender and go straight stirring in the sour cream, if you want.

Remember, I have little kids that don’t like strange brown bits or onion pieces in their food. I use the stick blender, OFTEN, to hide onions, garlic, mushrooms, etc.
Comment by versicherungen on 24 May 2008:

Its looking great and great really great.I like its presentation too.
Comment by Charles@GreatCooksCommunity on 25 May 2008:

This stuff rocks! It’s good for lunch the next day too. I like the creaminess of it along with the spicy flavor. It’s like comfort food with a kick.
Comment by steev on 26 May 2008:

I love chicken and this appear vey good i hope it will be one of the best chicken
Pingback by Free Recipe » Blog Archive » Starting the Day Off Right on 11 June 2008:

[...] King Ranch Chicken Casserole [...]
Comment by Linwood (The Headwait) on 18 June 2008:

This looks like a great recipe with plenty of flavor. Thanks for sharing that little extra.
Comment by Corinne on 20 July 2008:

oh my gosh, this reminds me of a thing my mother used to make that was absolutely the best! cream of mushroom soup and canned chilis and shredded chicken and tortillas… i LOVE that this is all homemade/from scratch! Yummm!
Comment by Jill@SimpleDailyRecipes.com on 21 July 2008:

Hi Corinne!

I am very familiar with the recipe your Mom made. It was all I knew too. But after learning to make sour cream enchiladas and roasting peppers, I realized I could make King Ranch chicken without the canned soups. So I did.

I don’t think I can go back to the cans ever again. I know the difference now.
Comment by Densie on 8 August 2008:

Thank you Thank you! for taking the time to post this one. My family including my twins love this! I did use a red pepper and green pepper instead of the spicy pepper. It was awesome. Well worth the effort.

Please keep the receipes coming!
Comment by Jill on 9 August 2008:

Thank you Denise!
I like your idea of using a green bell pepper instead of a spicy poblano. I’m going to throw one of those in next time, so I can have a mild side with color!
And thank for confirming that this recipe IS WORTH THE EFFORT.

I’m working on your Chicken Cacciatore recipe today and I’ve invited my neighbor over to help us judge whether I did a good job.
I’ll keep you posted.
Comment by Densie on 12 August 2008:

Jill, Just wanted you to know that I posted this recipe on my blog. As I am sitting her I am thinking I should have ask you first. Please read it or if you want me to remove please do not hesitate to tell me. I dont want to offend you by no means.

I made this last night and it was awesome again!
Comment by Jill on 12 August 2008:

Oh Denise, you’re cool. You told your readers where the recipe came from and that’s what linklove is all about.

It’s the spamblogs that take my recipes, wrap them with ads and never share the revenue that bother me.
Comment by Jill on 21 August 2008:

It’s time to make this again. I’m going to use Denise’s idea with the green bell pepper this time, because I have 4 mouths that like the mild side.

I’m saving the spicy kick for the salsa & chips on the side.

What would be a good dessert to finish this meal?