Salsa Chicken Casserole
This is not my own recipe but one I found on Pinterest and feel is share-worthy. You can click to see the Pin on the right. You can go to BudgetBytes.com to see the recipe.
It has a really great flavor and is super easy. My husband was a full skeptic when he saw the recipe because he "doesn't like corn, black beans, or rice" in his Mexican dishes. I had everything in my pantry I needed so I decided to make it anyway and he LOVED it.
It was simple enough that while I was trimming and cutting up the chicken I asked my husband to throw everything else into the casserole dish. We prepared it ahead of time on Sunday night and cooked it for dinner on Tuesday.
The instructions say to use an 8x8 dish but that was way too small for ours. We bumped it up to a 9x13 and the chicken sat down into the mixture just fine. After it finished baking I added a little salsa to the top of each chicken and then topped it with cheese. I turned my oven off, covered the dish and let it sit in the oven until we were ready to eat (about 20 min). Everything was still warm and the cheese was perfectly melted without having to stick it back in the oven.
I did use Minute brown rice instead of regular white rice which the comments suggest makes a difference in the cooking time. Since mine was minute rice and soaked for two nights before being cooked I did not have a problem with the rice not being done. You may want to check out the comments yourself.
Since it's just the two of us we had half of it leftover and we found that the reheated version is not as good. I recommend dividing up the mixture into two 8x8 dishes and cooking them on separate nights if you expect to have leftovers.
The last time I checked the PIN had been disabled so here is the recipe as well.
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked rice $0.33
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels (thawed) $0.52
- 1 (15 oz.) can black beans $1.39
- 1 (16 oz.) jar salsa $1.99
- 1 cup chicken broth $0.15
- ½ Tbsp chili powder $0.10
- ½ tsp oregano $0.03
- 2 large (1.5 lbs.) chicken breasts $2.99
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese $0.94
- 2 whole green onions, sliced $0.17
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Drain and briefly rinse the black beans. Add the dry rice, black beans, corn, salsa, chicken broth, chili powder, and oregano to an 8×8 inch casserole dish. Stir until everything is evenly combined.
- Cut the chicken breasts into three pieces each. Push the chicken pieces down into the rice salsa mixture in the casserole dish. Try to push them down as far into the liquid as they’ll go. Cover the casserole dish tightly with foil. Bake for one hour.
- Take the casserole dish out of the oven, test the rice with a fork to make sure it is tender. If it is not, recover the dish, return it to the oven, and bake for 10-15 minutes more. When the rice is tender, sprinkle the cheese over top and return the casserole to the oven for a few minutes, or until the cheese has melted. Add the sliced green onions on top after baking and serve hot.