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Pollo Verde Enchilada Casserole

There are two things I love to do in this world. One is to overcook chicken and shred it and ... the other is to overcook pork and shred it. I do this often and tend to have both pork and chicken pre-shredded in my freezer. Sometimes it's alone and sometimes it's suspended in sauce. Sometimes it's latin in origin and sometimes it's asian. The good news is, making up a big batch of overcooked and shredded meat is fairly easy to do, is plentiful, flavorful and makes for a quick assembly of a wide variety of other dishes!

In this case, I'm using a green chicken chili base as the main ingredient within this super cheesy and massively flavorful casserole. I live in Mexico. As a result, the local CostCo carries big bricks of Queso Asadero, which is a spectacular melting cheese. The flavor is so warm, salty and inviting. It always breaks and a yellow cheesy butterfat always oozes out flavoring whatever it touches. I have NO idea how difficult it would be to find a Queso Asadero in the states, but suspect it's not that difficult. If you can't find it, a Cheddar-Colby blend would be nice, as would Fontina or Monterrey Jack.

The photos show a lighter colored Lebanese Zucchini as it's what is found in abundance around here. Any zucchini will do, even the yellow ones.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time1 hr
Total Time1 hr 30 mins
Servings: 12 Servings
Calories: 491.25kcal
Author: DJ Foodie

Ingredients

  • 12 each low carb tortillas
  • 6 each small green zucchini cut into 1/4-inch discs
  • 2 tbsp light olive oil
  • 1 recipe spicy green chicken chili divided into thirds
  • 2 lbs queso asadero shredded and divided into fourths
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
  • Place your 12 tortillas in the oven, spread around over different racks. Watch them carefully, so they don't burn. The goal is to just dry them out, so they re-absorb the liquid from the ingredients in the casserole. They don't need to be super crispy, just somewhat cooked and dried out. I'd call the right texture as "leathery". When they're "leathery", remove them. If they're not fully cooked, they turn doughy in the casserole (still tasty, but ... kind of weird).
  • Pre-heat a large sauté pan over high heat.
  • Toss the zucchini discs with the olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.
  • Add half of the zucchini to the pan and sauté it until it's just cooked through. Remove the zucchini and set it on a plate to the side of the stove.
  • Now, sauté the other half of the zucchini. The idea here is that you're sautéing the zucchini. If you place too many into a pan at once, it won't sauté. It cools the pan down too much and the zucchini just sweats, releases its water and gets mushy. A really large hot sauté pan might work for all of it, or use 2 or 3 pans at once. You want a nice caramelization on the outside, but still holding its shape. Once all the zucchini is cooked, set it aside. Divide it into 3 portions.
  • Reserve about 1/2 cups worth of the green chili sauce, but without much of the chicken. You just want the saucy part.
  • In the base of a 13x9 baking pan, spread a thin and even coat of the green chili sauce (about 1/4 cup).
  • Spread 3 tortillas on the bottom of the pan.
  • Evenly spread 1/3 of the chicken chili on the tortillas.
  • Evenly spread 1/3 of the zucchini on the chicken chili.
  • Evenly spread 1/4 of the cheese on the chili and zucchini.
  • Place 3 more tortillas above the previously added ingredients.
  • Repeat this process until all the chicken, zucchini and tortillas have been used. The final layer should be 3 leathery tortillas. You should still have about 1/4 cup of chili sauce and 1/4 of the remaining cheese.
  • Spread the remainder of the sauce on the tortillas, mostly just to moisten them.
  • Evenly spread the remainder of the cheese on the top of the tortillas.
  • Bake in the oven for about 50 to 60 minutes, or until cooked through and nice and brown on the top.
  • I often serve with some hot salsa and a nice big dollop of sour cream!

Nutrition

Serving: 12g | Calories: 491.25kcal | Carbohydrates: 16.600833333333g | Protein: 35.548333333333g | Fat: 33.6025g | Fiber: 6.58g