Easy Chicken Enchilada Lasagna

There’s good news for you and your family. Your family members could be having both enchiladas and lasagna for dinner if you give this recipe a try. The good news for you is, this Easy Chicken Enchilada Lasagna is a breeze to make. This is the consummate case of a win-win scenario.

Truth: I am a changed woman. I am no longer the same Maya that I was last week.

Reason: The nieces stayed over for 3 days. (I am tempted to add a laughing emoji here)

I think I have learnt to appreciate the mothers a lot more. It is amazing as to how my mom would work, do the housework, cook every single day and brought all of four of us up single-handedly after my father’s demise. I should start asking her as to how was that even possible. If I were a full hands mother of four, I doubt I would get the time to blog. For those of you bloggers who are mummies, I am pretty sure you either have 2 pairs of hands or you have a couple of kitchen elves to assist you. Please let me know the secret. I promise you a lifetime supply of these delicious Pumpkin Spice Scones.

Mothers do not get much free time, do they? There is so much work to be done. Somehow, with the kids around, the laundry tends to pile up as well. Just in case the elder niece is reading this, just know that I am not complaining sweetheart. I love to have you girls over and please come again during the next school holidays. We definitely had a lot of fun. A visit to the game arcade, played a whole lot of Jenga, watched Barbie movies while eating sushi and burgers. It was also good that I got to return them once I was tired. *grins*

Since I love to cook, I obviously have family members who love to eat and this includes the nieces. I asked the nieces as to what they wanted to eat. Suggestions started to pop up, like salads, pasta, casserole, tuna sandwiches, and cheesy omelette, just to name a few.

The second niece said “I saw a YouTube video and this guy did a red sauce, cheese, tortillas and shredded chicken in a casserole and I want to make that.” Obviously when she said “she wants to make that”, she meant ME.

The Mexican in me just knew that she was talking about enchiladas. If you are wondering which side of me is Mexican, It is my taste buds. I have always loved Mexican food and this makes me partly Mexican. Don’t ask me how.
This Easy Chicken Enchilada Lasagna was fun to make. Layers of sauce, chicken, cheese, tortillas that forms a party in your tummy! You can choose to use homemade enchiladas sauce or canned ones for this recipe. I used bottled sauce with a couple of add-ons to elevate the flavors.

Since I was cooking for kids, I did not use a whole lot of ingredients as kids can get fussy with ingredients like olives and beans, but you can really add anything you want in this Easy Chicken Enchilada Lasagna recipe. Ingredients like corn, black beans and olives would be yummy.

This delicious and cheesy goodness is simple to make whether you are feeding four or a whole army. I think this is a recipe that I would turn back to pretty often. I love how cheesy these are and those slightly crispy edges… sighs. I used Mozzarella and cheddar because I had it. You could use any other cheese that you prefer like Gouda, Monterrey Jack or Provolone but lots of cheese is necessary for sure.

The unique thing about this dish is, this actually tastes just like a lasagna AND an enchilada too. It’s basically Mexican meeting Italian. Oh, did I tell you that I am partly Italian too?

5.0 from 1 reviews

Easy Chicken Enchilada Lasagna

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

Author: Maya Kitchenette

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the Chicken Enchilada Lasagna

• 300g grilled chicken breast or rotisserie chicken (See notes)
• 2 cups shredded cheese (I used a mixed of cheddar and mozzarella)
• 3 cups enchilada sauce (use canned sauce OR see recipe below)
• 6 flour tortillas
• 1 green capsicum, cubed
• 1 red capsicum, cubed

For the Sauce

• 1 jar of red pasta sauce (I used Prego traditional)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder/paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, remove seeds and dice
• ½ cup water or chicken broth
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoon Olive oil

Instructions

1. In a pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and saute the green and red capsicum for 2 minutes. Season with some salt and a pinch of black pepper. Transfer to a bowl and keep aside.
2. In the same pan, add another tablespoon of olive oil and saute chopped onions for 3 minutes.
3. Add garlic, jalapeno, chili powder and cumin powder and cook this for a minute.
4. Pour in red pasta sauce, water/chicken broth and season with some salt and black pepper.
5. Simmer this for about 10-15 minutes and keep this aside.

To assemble

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Place a few spoonful’s of enchilada sauce in the bottom of baking dish.
3. Place 2 tortillas in the bottom of the dish, overlapping to cover the entire surface.
4. Layer with chicken, capsicum and cheese.
5. Repeat the same to make a total of 3 layers.
6. Cover the top with the remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes.
8. Allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving to get nice looking squares.
9. Top with cilantro, if preferred.

Notes

Although you can use rotisserie chicken for the filling, I personally prefer to make a simple grilled chicken with the recipe below.

Ingredients
300g chicken breast or chicken tenders
1 garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon mixed herbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method
Place all the ingredients above and marinade for about 15 minutes.
In a frying pan or grill, cook the chicken for about 7-10 minutes on each side.

3.5.3208