Crock Pot Enchilada Casserole

This recipe was inspired by A Year of CrockPotting's recipe for CrockPot Enchilada Casserole. I pretty much didn't follow the original ingredient list at all, except for tortillas and chicken. But this is where I got the concept and the instructions.

Crock Pot Enchilada Casserole
8 corn tortillas
1-2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded
1 cup zucchini, chopped
Mozzarella cheese

Enchilada Sauce:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 to 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Make your enchilada sauce by placing tomatoes (undrained), garlic, chili powder, cumin, crushed red pepper, and s&p in blender. Puree until smooth (or skip a step and just open up a can of enchilada sauce. It works great, but we don't usually have that on hand).

Layer tortillas (2 at a time) in greased crock pot, followed by sauce, chicken, zucchini, and cheese. Repeat layers until your ingredients run out, ending with cheese. I got four layers in.

Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours.

After cooking, the cheese was all melty and gooey, and the casserole smelled so good!

Notes:
-I made my own tortillas using masa harina. It would be easier to use store-bought, but we didn't have any.
-Don't use flour tortillas. They will get too soggy and be very unpleasant to eat.
-For the chicken, I boiled 2 leg quarters. I shredded one leg quarter, then set aside the broth and the other leg for future use.
-I at first intended to use ground turkey. But we had the chicken thawing in the fridge, so I went ahead and used that. Feel free to substitute ground beef or turkey.
-If you don't like spicy, use less crushed red pepper. If you really don't like spicy, omit the red pepper. I used about 1 tsp, and it had a good bite to it. The kids didn't seem to mind; I gave them some plain rice on the side to tone it down a bit.

This was a really good recipe! It tastes like enchiladas, but without the work and mess of rolling them. My one-year-old absolutely loved it - he threw a fit when I took him out of his seat after his bowl was emptied. So I gave him another serving, which he ate just as enthusiastically as the first. I enjoyed this with some of the salsa I made a couple days ago.


I can very much see myself making this again using a variety of fillings - anything you would put in an enchilada can be layered into an enchilada casserole!