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Kick the condensed soup to the side for a better King Ranch Casserole! This famous, Texas-born, stacked enchilada casserole features shredded chicken, corn tortillas, hearty vegetables, cheese, and a creamy Tex-Mex sauce made from scratch. Welcome to the table your new favorite dinner casserole.
WHAT IS KING RANCH CASSEROLE
King Ranch casserole is a stacked enchilada casserole with layers of chicken, cheese, corn tortillas, and quite possibly the best part -- a spiced chicken gravy. This is not your average chicken gravy, folks. It's chock-full of vegetables like mushrooms, bell peppers, celery, and onion, and gets its Tex-Mex vibe thanks to chili powder and cumin. But wait! There's more. Cans of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes, along with green chilis are added to the sauce as well, and I gotta tell ya, the flavor is here is deep, and nothing if not phenomenal.
HOW TO MAKE KING RANCH CASSEROLE
- Have the chicken cooked and shredded.
- Make the sauce by first sauteeing vegetables, then sprinkling with flour and stirring in the chicken broth. Allow to simmer and thicken.
- Soak the tortillas in broth and assemble the casserole.
- Bake the casserole.
HAVE THE CHICKEN COOKED READY
To make King Ranch casserole, you'll need to have cooked and shredded chicken ready to rock. You can bake your own chicken breasts, or pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.
MAKE THE SAUCE
Then, it's time for the sauce, which as I said earlier, is essentially a chicken gravy. Oil, flour, and broth = gravy. However, like I also said earlier, this is not your average gravy, and it begins with a sautée of all those yummy vegetables on the stovetop.
After the vegetables have softened, they get a sprinkling of flour (you could substitute gluten-free flour to make this a gluten-free meal), and the chicken broth goes in, followed by the spices and cilantro. The mixture bubbles until thickened, and the sauce is ready to go to work.
ASSEMBLE THE CASSEROLE
King Ranch casserole is a stacked enchilada casserole, which basically means you're working with layers of corn tortillas. It begins with a little sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish to keep it from sticking on the bottom. Then on goes the first layer of the casserole: Corn tortillas, sauce, shredded chicken, and cheese. The pattern is repeated once more (so that's two full layers) and ends with a top layer of tortillas, sauce, then cheese.
BAKE THE CASSEROLE
The casserole is baked until bubbly, and as hard as it may be, I would advise you to let this one rest for about 15 minutes or so before digging in. This will give the sauce time to set up so that when you cut into it, ingredients don't go oozing out all over the place. However, if you just can't find the willpower to resist digging in right away, it does taste the same...no matter where it sits on your plate.
KING RANCH CASSEROLE FROM SCRATCH
Fresh vegetables and herbs not only add vibrant, new flavors of the casserole, they add a pleasing variation in texture as well. Now, don't get me wrong, as a child, I loved mom's version of King Ranch casserole, but after trying out Texas Monthly's made-from-scratch version, going back to a make-shift Tex-Mex gravy would never be an option.
NEW AND IMPROVED
In comparison to the Texas Monthly recipe I started out with, I cut back on both the amount of butter andgarlic but upped the quantity of chili powder and cumin. Hello, flavor. Next, rather than roasting green chilis, peeling and seeding them, I opted for canned diced green chilis, and while I know using the fresh chilis would add more texture to the casserole, the freshly sautéed mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion were more than sufficient. Lastly, good-bye Rotel, hello fire-roasted tomatoes. Fire-roasted tomatoes have a deep, unparalleled flavor, and are total perfection in King Ranch casserole.
5 MORE TEX-MEX RECIPES YOU'LL LOVE
- Doritos Casserole
- Chicken Taco Casserole
- Sour Cream Enchiladas
- Crock-Pot Chicken Tacos
- Ground Turkey Casserole with Ranchero Sauce
3.72 from 42 votes
King Ranch Casserole
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
Total Time
55 mins
A recipe for the best King Ranch Casserole ever! A famous Texas-born, stacked enchilada casserole featuring shredded chicken, corn tortillas, hearty vegetables, cheese, and a creamy Tex-Mex sauce.
Course:Main Course
Cuisine:American
Keyword:King Ranch Casserole
Servings: 12 Servings
Calories: 306 kcal
Author: Kelly Anthony
Ingredients
- 15-20corn tortillascut in half
- 5cupsunsalted chicken broth, separated
- 2cupscooked and shredded chicken
- 2tablespoonsunsalted butter
- 1tablespoonolive oil
- 2stalks of celerydiced
- 1white oniondiced
- 1green bell pepperseeded and diced
- 8ouncesWhite Button Mushroomschopped
- 2cloves of garlicminced
- ½cupall-purpose flour
- 1 (14 ounce)can of fire-roasted, diced tomatoesdrained
- 2(4 ounce)cans of diced green chilis
- 1tablespoon + 1 teaspoonchili powder
- 2teaspoonsground cumin
- 2teaspoonsKosher salt
- ½teaspoonblack pepper
- ¼cupfinely chopped, fresh cilantro, separated
- 1 ¾cupfreshly grated Cheddar cheese
- 1 ¾cupfreshly grated Monterrey Jack cheese
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375° and have ready a 9x13” greased baking dish.
Place the halved tortillas in a shallow dish (like apie dish), and pour over 1 cup of chicken broth. Set aside and allow to soak.
In a large rimmed sauté pan over medium-high heat, melt together butter and olive oil. Add celery, onion, and bell pepper and sauté until softened and onions are translucent, 5-8 minutes.
Add mushrooms and sauté until juices have released and they begin to take on a brown color, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté 30 seconds to a minute.
Sprinkle over the flour and stir until a paste coats the vegetables. Slowly drizzle in the remaining 4 cups of chicken broth, whisking constantly until flour has completely dissolved and no lumps remain.
Allow mixture to come to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and allow to simmer about 5 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened.
Stir in the tomatoes and green chilis and allow to simmer for another five minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of cilantro. Stir once more, remove from heat and set aside.
Combine the Cheddar and Monterrey Jack in a small bowl, and set aside.
Spoon a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish and then add a layer of tortillas.
Add a layer of sauce over the tortillas, followed by alayer of chicken and then a third of the cheese mixture.
Repeat with another layer of tortillas, sauce, chicken, and half of the remaining cheese.
Add one more layer of tortillas, alongwith the remaining sauce, and cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes until bubbly.
Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro and set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
King Ranch Casserole
Amount Per Serving
Calories 306Calories from Fat 144
% Daily Value*
Fat 16g25%
Saturated Fat 8g50%
Cholesterol 52mg17%
Sodium 687mg30%
Potassium 418mg12%
Carbohydrates 23g8%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 1g1%
Protein 18g36%
Vitamin A 940IU19%
Vitamin C 9.8mg12%
Calcium 288mg29%
Iron 1.8mg10%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Would pair well with:
At-Home Margaritas,Homemade Garlic Bread,Classic House Salad
