One Pot Chicken Enchilada Rice Casserole Recipe

Easy, simple midweek meal! Rice with shredded chicken cooked in a do-it-yourself enchilada sauce (or use store-bought!), topped with cheese. All made in a single pot!

All you need is chicken, rice, tomato passata (or canned tomato) and a handful of pantry requirements to make this unbelievable flavour loaded, comfort-food-central meal. Oh wait – cheese. In spite of everything you need cheese. This won’t be “Enchilada” with out cheese!

I’ve been overloading on Mexican over the previous couple of weeks, sharing my Mexican Shredded Beef and Freezer Nice Beef Burritos. I actually really feel a bit silly sharing but yet one more Mexican(-esque) recipe within the current day, nevertheless I hadn’t actually consider to! I had Cashew Chicken all ready to go, then I obtained the sweetest message from TWO readers in in some unspecified time in the future asking me to please share further one-pot recipes on account of they cherished my One Pot Greek Chicken & Lemon Rice quite a bit. 🙂 So I decided to shuffle my posting calendar a bit and share this within the current day. I hope you don’t ideas!

I like this type of meals for midweek. I identify it Couch Meals. The definition of Couch Meals is “any meal that could be served in a bowl and eaten with a fork or spoon with out taking your eyes off the TV”.

This qualifies. 100%. 🙂

There are pretty a lot of spices required for this recipe on account of the sauce the rice is cooked in is definitely do-it-yourself Enchilada sauce. I’ve marked the elements that make up the Enchilada Sauce with an asterisk (*) so you possibly can in reality substitute with a retailer bought Enchilada Sauce and it will flip into even easier to make!

My key tip for making that’s to take it off the vary whereas it is nonetheless pretty saucy on account of the rice will proceed to absorb water whereas it is resting – and even if you end up serving it. You want it pretty saucy – not sloppy, nevertheless not dry.

And please please please don’t overcook the rice so it is mushy! The liquid parts I’ve supplied will not yield mushy rice – I like mine tender nevertheless company (it’s an Asian “issue”), nevertheless I do know some people are likely to get confused that the rice isn’t cooking and add further water. Which is totally excellent, prepare dinner dinner the rice to your type nevertheless merely don’t let it flip into youngster meals! 🙂

Hope you had a phenomenal weekend! Once more on Wednesday with one factor a bit fully totally different – nevertheless large easy, large tasty and fully irresistible!

One Pot Chicken Enchilada Rice Casserole Recipe

Print

Serves: 5 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 25 minutes 25 minutes

Nutrition facts: 490 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 400g (13oz) chicken breast, about 1/3"/1cm thick, sliced horizontally into thin steaks (Note 1)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 red bell pepper/capsicum, diced
• 680g (24oz) tomato passata or crushed canned tomatoes* (Note 2)
• 3 cups chicken broth or water (750ml)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn (250g)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper* (spicy - adjust to taste)
• 1 tbsp dried oregano*
• 2 tsp cumin*
• 1 1/2 tsp coriander*
• 2 tsp onion powder*
• 1 tbsp brown sugar*
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 cups (270g) white rice (short, medium or long grain , uncooked (Note 4)
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups grated cheese (about 125 - 150 g)
• Chopped cilantro/coriander optional

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in large skillet.
2. Add chicken and cook each side for 2 minutes or until cooked, then remove onto a plate.
3. Add extra oil if the skillet is looking dry. Add onion and garlic, cook for 1 1/2 minutes until starting to soften.
4. Add bell peppers and cook for a further 2 minutes.
5. Add remaining ingredients except rice and cheese. Bring to simmer, then add rice.
6. Stir, cover with a lid and turn down heat to medium low. Cover and cook until rice is cooked but not mushy and most of the liquid is absorbed - about 15 to 18 minutes. (Note 3). Do not stir while it cooks.
7. Meanwhile, shred or roughly chop chicken.
8. When rice is cooked, quickly stir chicken through, sprinkle with cheese then pop under broil / grill until golden and bubbly.
9. Serve, garnished with fresh cilantro/coriander if desired.

Notes

1. Slice the chicken into thin steaks just so they cook faster on the stove. You could bash them thinner using a meat mallet or rolling pin if you prefer (place the chicken between cling wrap). Or if you had a bad day. It's very therapeutic.
2. Tomato passata is just pureed tinned tomatoes. Nowadays it is readily available in supermarkets, usually alongside pasta sauces. It costs just a tiny bit more, sometimes the same, as canned tomatoes. If you can't find it, puree canned tomatoes or use crushed canned tomatoes.
3. Add extra water if required because many variables can affect the amount of water required to cook rice. When you finish cooking, you want a bit of liquid left in the rice so it is a bit saucy. Also remember that the rice will continue to absorb liquid even when you take it off the stove.
4. This recipe is suited to short, medium or long grain (aka "normal") white rice. It is not suited to brown rice, risotto, calasparra (paella) rice or wild rice. I am pretty sure it will work with Jasmin and Basmati because they water to liquid ratio is the same and the cook time is similar. But I can't say with 100% certainty because I haven't tried it.
* These ingredients are the "Enchilada Sauce" in this recipe. You can substitute all these ingredients with 24oz/680g of store bought Enchilada Sauce if you prefer.
5. STORAGE: This will reheat fine in the microwave from the fridge or thawed after freezing.