My family loves lasagna. They love Mexican (or TexMex, or whatever it is usually called these days!). What they don’t tend to love is corn tortillas, unless we do something special with them. Sometimes I turn corn tortillas into chips. Other times I want something more real.
I scoured the internet, looking for ideas, and finally combined about a half-dozen recipes into this lasagna dish. In the recipe below, I show it as a use for cooked chicken, but I use whatever meat I have available… turkey, ground beef, pork, etc.
If you start with raw meat, cook it up first, remove it from the pan, and then saute the onions and such.
I’ve been known to substitute different chiles (Hatch are my favorite though), regular tomatoes (those usually need less water/broth) for the Romas, or even {gasp} canned tomatoes. Home canned, preferably.
Every time I make this, my family tells me I need to make this more often.
Ingredients
- 8 Roma tomatoes
- 2 Hatch chiles
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 T chili powder
- 1 t ground cumin
- salt
- pepper
- water or chicken broth
- 2 cups cooked, cubed chicken
- 1 medium onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp oregano
- 12 corn tortillas
- 3 cups shredded cheese, your choice (chedder, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, or a combination)
Instructions
- Dice tomatoes and chiles, mince 3 cloves garlic.
- Add all sauce ingredients (up through the cumin) plus a dash of salt and pepper, to a saucepan. Add 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth.
- Bring to a boil, while stirring occasionally. Turn heat down to simmer, and continue to stir occasionally. If the tomatoes are not very juicy, you may need to add a bit more broth or water. I usually allow this to simmer for 45 minutes or so. If you don't like chunky sauce, take an immersion blender to it for a smoother sauce.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Over medium-high heat, saute onions in your choice of oil. As they start to soften, add 1 clove minced garlic and the oregano. After 2-3 more minutes, add chicken and stir just until the chicken is heated. Remove from heat.
- Spray a 9x13" pan with cooking spray. Coat the bottom of the pan with about 1/2 cup of the sauce.
- Dip 4 tortillas in the remaining sauce, and put those in the baking dish. I generally put three down whole, and cut one in half to cover the surface more evenly. Top this with half of the chicken mix, and then with 1 cup of shredded cheese.
- Repeat these layers -- another 4 tortillas (dipped in sauce), the rest of the chicken mixture, 1 cup of cheese, and then another 4 dipped tortillas.
- Pour the remaining sauce evenly over the top, then finish off with the rest of the cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake for half an hour. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes
- Serves 8.
