Mexican Chicken Taco Casserole with Olives, Peppers & Queso Fresco Cheese Recipe

Mexican Chicken Taco Casserole with Olives, Peppers & Queso Fresco Cheese Recipe

In our family, we need very few excuses to eat olives. When I was a kid, holiday dinners with my aunt, uncle and cousins were an opportunity for the kids to scarf down as many black olives as we possibly could before the adults noticed. Of course, the adults were onto our ploy and, eventually, they started buying California Ripe Olives with the pits still in them. That way, they could track the number of olives consumed (and set a cut-off point) by the number of pits on our plates. Foiled again!

National Taco Day, on October 4th, was as good an excuse as any to crack open a can or two of California Ripe Olives. The first can was used for this hearty Mexican Chicken Taco Casserole. The second can was quickly absconded by my two boys, as they plucked the olives out of the can and firmly planted them on their fingers, to be savored one-by-one.

To make the assembly of this casserole as easy as possible, use chicken breasts from a supermarket roasted chicken, and your favorite pre-prepared enchilada sauce. I prefer the green enchilada sauce, but red will work just as well here.

Simply layer the corn tortillas, chicken, sautéed and spiced peppers, black beans, queso fresco cheese, enchilada sauce and California Ripe Olives to form a towering lasagne-like casserole. Pop it in the oven and you’ll be rewarded 45 minutes later with a hearty, satisfying meal for your family.

The recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Add onion, and Anaheim and bell peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.

Coat a 7- by 11-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish.

Lay 4 tortillas over the sauce, tearing the tortillas as necessary to make them fit properly.

Spread 1/3 each of the pepper mixture, chicken, olives, black beans, queso fresco cheese and cilantro over the tortillas.

Top with 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce and 4 additional tortillas. Repeat the layers two more times, ending with corn tortillas, 1/2 cup enchilada sauce and queso fresco cheese.

Cover the baking dish with foil and place it on a baking sheet. Bake until the casserole is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove the foil and cook for additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

Let the casserole cool for about 15 minutes to allow it to set. Cut and serve.

California Ripe Olive Prizes:

On October 16 at 7pm EDT, Kitchen PLAY and California Ripe Olives, along with some of your favorite food bloggers, will be hosting a Twitter party. Come chat with us about this tasty and versatile food, There will also be chances to win some great olive prizes! Register here.

If you want a leg-up on the olive trivia for the Twitter party (and more great recipe ideas for incorporating California Ripe Olives into your taco recipes), be sure to read all 10 posts at Kitchen PLAY. Each post contains an “olive fact” that may appear as a trivia question during the Twitter Party. A new post and fact is revealed each day, October 1-12.

My CA Ripe Olive fact: There are only two canners in California, both multi-generation family businesses.

Mexican Chicken Taco Casserole with Olives, Peppers & Queso Fresco Cheese

From the kitchen of Cookin Canuck. www.cookincanuck.com

Ingredients

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Add onion, and Anaheim and bell peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.

Coat a 7- by 11-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish.

Lay 4 tortillas over the sauce, tearing the tortillas as necessary to make them fit properly.

Spread 1/3 each of the pepper mixture, chicken, olives, black beans, queso fresco cheese and cilantro over the tortillas.

Top with 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce and 4 additional tortillas. Repeat the layers two more times, ending with corn tortillas, 1/2 cup enchilada sauce and queso fresco cheese.

Cover the baking dish with foil and place it on a baking sheet.

Bake until the casserole is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove the foil and cook for additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

Let the casserole cool for about 15 minutes to allow it to set. Cut and serve.

2.0

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Kitchen Play and California Ripe Olives. Additionally, they provided product to make the recipe.

casserole,

cheese,

chicken,

Mexican,

olives,

peppers,

queso fresco,

recipe,

taco