King Ranch Chicken Cotton Country Collection Cookbook Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
• Make the soup/tomato mixture, which is very bizarre and might scare you off. But please: Be brave and stick with me through this challenging time. You won't be sorry! In a large bowl, combine the soups and diced tomatoes and chiles. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and chicken broth. Then--this is the time to be strong--stir it all together. Trust me!
• Line the bottom of the baking dish with half of the torn tortillas. Layer on half the chicken. Add half the onion, bell pepper and jalapeno. Sprinkle on half the cheese and pour on half the wacky soup mixture. Then repeat the layers, beginning with the rest of the tortillas, and ending with the rest of the you-know-what.
• Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake until bubbling, another 15 minutes.
• Look at that! Serve it with a salad and a dang hearty appetite.
• To make ahead and freeze: Fold foil over the unbaked casserole and freeze until solid. Then, lift the foil-topped casserole out of the pan, wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and freeze until needed. When ready to bake, remove the plastic wrap, put the foiled-topped casserole back into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and thaw. Bake at 350 degrees F following the baking instructions above.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 11 by 7 by 2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Sauce: Melt butter in medium heavy skillet over moderate heat. Add garlic, red pepper, and cumin and stir-fry 1 minute. Blend in flour, add broth and milk, and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth -- about 3 minutes. Stir in sour cream, salt, and black pepper to taste; set aside. Filling: Melt butter in large heavy skillet, over moderate heat. Add onion, green pepper, green chilies, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pimiento, and cook, stirring often, until vegetables soften and flavors meld-10 to 15 minutes. Tortillas: Pour oil to depth of 1/2 inch in small heavy skillet, set over moderate heat, and heat until ripples appear on skillet bottom. Holding tortillas by tongs, dip one by one into oil just long enough to soften, 5 to 10 seconds. Drain on paper towels.
• To Layer: Arrange half of tortillas in bottom of prepared baking dish, then build up layers this way, distributing each evenly: 1/2 chicken and 1/3 sauce; 1/2 each filling, cheese, olives, and scallions, and 1/2 remaining tortillas, chicken, filling, cheese, olives, scallions, and finally, remaining sauce. Bake, uncovered, until bubbly- about 30 to 35 minutes. Serve at once.

Steps:

• Boil hen (leg quarters) until tender in water seasoned with onion, celery, salt and pepper.
• Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and reserve all stock. (I usually freeze the chicken until ready to make the casserole and freeze the stock in separate containers to use not only for this recipe but all recipes that I use that involve chicken stock/broth.).
• Chop onion and bell pepper (or remove the frozen stuff from the freezer), combine soups (I usually put in the chili powder and garlic salt in this step because otherwise the putting together of the casserole gets messier), and grate cheese (see above note in ingredients).
• Just before putting casserole together, soak the frozen tortillas in boiling chicken stock until wilted. (You will probably need around 10-12 tortillas for the batch. They do not need to soak very long, or they will become mush!).
• Start layering casserole in a 9x12 inch baking dish (or a disposable aluminum casserole pan) in this order: Tortillas "dripping with stock", chicken, onion, bell pepper, sprinkling to taste with chili powder and garlic salt (see above note), soup mixture and cheese. Repeat the layers, being sure the tortillas are ozzing (I know it's a typo, but that typo is one of the reasons why I love this recipe) with the stock.
• Cover the casserole with the Rotel tomatoes and all the juice.
• Juices in the casserole should be about half of the depth of the dish, if not add a little more stock.
• May be made and frozen several days ahead (or make two and freeze one), but always make at least one day ahead and refrigerate so that the flavors will blend.
• Bake casserole uncovered at 375 degrees for 30 minutes (It may take a bit longer). Serves 8 to 10.
• Secret: a well-seasoned stock.