One of my more successful casseroles and one of my family’s absolute favorites, this recipe combines the love for chicken fajitas with comfort food.
You’ll need a 3 quart casserole dish for this recipe. Makes eight servings. Directions are pretty straight forward here, which is one of the things I love about casseroles they’re just so easy to make.
The two things I should note is that you can definitely use the rice of your choosing here. I like basmati but you really can add more to this dish by selecting your favorite Spanish rice mix. Just make sure you end up with 3 Cups of cooked rice in the end.
The second thing I would like to point out is the order in which you layer this casserole actually does matter. I like to think of it as three layers. The bottom layer is your rice and you’ll need some cheese to bind it together or your rice will be loose when you serve it. Chicken and veggies are the middle layer, however there is no need for a specific order to how they go down. You can add veggies first then chicken, or vise versa. The third layer should bake down into your ingredients below, so that’s going to be your salsa which is topped with shredded Pepper Jack cheese.
In the ingredients below you’ll notice I selected block cheese as opposed to pre shredded bag cheese. As always go for block cheese because pre shredded bag cheese has cellulose powder added to prevent the cheese from sticking together in the bag. As a result, it doesn’t melt down as good as block cheese. However, moms and dads who have little ones and are short on time always get a hall pass.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. Chicken Breast
- 1 Red Bell Pepper
- 1 Green Bell Pepper
- 1 Yellow Onion
- 1 cup of Uncooked Rice
- 8 ounce block of Monterey Jack Cheese
- 8 ounce block of Pepper Jack Cheese
- 16 ounce jar of Salsa
- 2 ounces of Taco Seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1/4 cup (or a hand full) chopped Green Onion
Nutrition Facts:
- Calories: 441
- Total Fat: 20.8g
- Cholesterol: 135mg
- Sodium: 1,018.4mg
- Total Carbohydrates: 27g
- Protein: 41.5g
- Vitamin D: 0%
- Calcium: 35.7%
- Iron: 9.9%
- Potassium: 63.8mg
- Vitamin A: 35%
- Vitamin C: 77.7%
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and while it heats up line a baking dish with foil and bring a small pot of water to a boil to cook 1 cup of uncooked rice to package instructions.
- Add 2 lbs. chicken breast to foil lined baking dish and coat with a drizzle of oil. Season both sides with taco seasoning, then bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes flipping half way.
- While chicken bakes and rice cooks you have some time on your hands, so get a cutting board and knife ready because you’re going to cut your veggies. Julienne (matchstick cut) your peppers and onion and set aside.
- In a well seasoned cast iron skillet (or skillet of choosing) add veggies and cook until slightly translucent and they begin to char. Once cooked, set aside on paper towel to remove excess oil.
- Cut your now baked chicken into cubes, or you may shred it whichever you prefer. I rotate between cubed and shredded on this recipe because I can never make my mind up, however I do feel like cubing your chicken is faster than shredding it. Unless you use a hand mixer of course.
- Assemble your casserole. There are three main layers; rice and Monterey Jack cheese, chicken and veggies, then salsa and Pepper Jack cheese.
- Bake casserole at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. While casserole bakes you can chop some green onion if you don’t have some prepped. Once baked top it with a hand full of chopped green onion and serve!
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