Gluten Free Enchilada Casserole

7/31/2013

I LOVE enchiladas. But they are tedious sometimes (not to mention expensive when you're gluten free...) For 8 gluten free tortillas-it's $5.99 at my local health food market. Yikes! I know I could simply use corn tortillas but I wanted something simpler. So, I invented a way that bypasses the tortilla and incorporates rice instead! This meal can be thrown together quickly and then the oven does the rest of the work! It's a perfect busy day meal. It always gets devoured fast when I make it!

Gluten Free Enchilada Casserole

(Gluten Free, Can be Dairy Free)
Created by jalene

Makes 6-12 servings
Ingredients:

1 "can" of gluten free cream of chicken soup (I used my recipe)
1 can (10 oz) gluten free enchilada sauce (I used Casa Fiesta's Mild, just be sure to look for one without red food dye!)
3/4 cup water
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 raw chicken breasts (about 1 lb), cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup long grain white rice
1 + 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (divided)
1 can (4 oz) green chilies
1 can (or 1 & 1/2 cup black beans), rinsed & drained
1 cup frozen corn (we used organic)
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a blender combine the cream of chicken, enchilada sauce, and the water until smooth. (Makes about 3 & 1/2 cups). Set aside.
In a 9x13 pan add the onion, garlic, chicken, rice, 1 cup cheddar cheese, green chilies, black beans, corn, and salt. Pour the sauce mixture over the top and mix well. Top with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and then cover the pan with foil.
Bake for 55 minutes and then remove the foil. Cook for another 5 minutes to melt the cheese. You could also broil instead it to give the cheese a nice crusty flavor.

We served our casserole with salad, avocados, and organic chips. Store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.

To make this dairy free...

Simply sub in your own favorite dairy free cheese OR you can leave the cheese out altogether. Just be sure to increase the salt to 1 tsp.

6 Comments

Stephanie

10/27/2013 03:00:16 pm

Could you sub quinoa in for the rice?

jalene link

10/29/2013 08:42:49 am

You could! I haven't tried it yet but you'll need to make sure of 2 things: rinse your quinoa super well before adding it to the casserole and check the casserole while it's cooking to make sure the quinoa fully cooks. It may be different than the cooking time I posted. Hope that helps!

Sara

3/12/2014 10:12:10 am

FYI- I made this tonight, and in an hour the rice was still crunchy and chicken still half raw... I had to bump it up to 425 and cook for another hour. Besides this mess up, it was very yummy!

3/28/2014 02:05:38 am

Sara, thanks for your feedback. Sorry to hear that! The longest I've had to cook this was 65 min at 350 degrees but that's because my chicken was frozen. I know if you use a different rice other than long grain white rice it will affect the cooking time as well.

Lori

8/20/2015 11:17:52 am

Delish! I used brown rice and Greek yogurt instead of the cream of chicken ( just because I ran out of time to make it). Baked at 375 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Came out fabulous! Everyone loved it! Definite keeper!

Jalene link

8/21/2015 02:26:30 pm

Awesome! Glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing that great alteration too