Chicken Corn Tex-Mex Casserole

I was trying to decide what to make for dinner the other night when I decided to make some tex-mex. My husband loves tex-mex. I was going to make fajitas, but to my dismay, we were out of tortillas at home. Instead, I decided to improvise! I had some corn, chicken, bell peppers, jalapenos, onion, cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips -- all great things that can be just thrown in together for a casserole dish.

Below is the recipe. You can alter the chicken and shred it to make a great dip, or replace it with turkey or even pork. You can even add beans to the recipe.

Hope you like it as much as we did.


Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
5 decobbed corn or 2 cans of corn
1/2 a yellow onion - chopped
1/2 green bell pepper - chopped
1/2 red bell pepper - chopped
1 jalapeno pepper - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - minced
1 packet ranch powder
pinch salt
pinch pepper
1/3 cup of chicken broth
olive oil
tortilla chips
6 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a pan, drizzle enough olive oil to brown chicken. Make sure to salt and pepper chicken before browning. After chicken is cooked, put to side to cool. In another pan, heat on medium high about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add garlic and onions. Cook onions until carmelized or translucent. Add corn and ranch powder. Mix. Then add jalapenos, both bell peppers, a pinch of salt and pepper and chicken broth. Mix together and let cook for about 5 minutes.

In a casserole dish, take half of cooked veggies and put in dish. Add cooked chicken on top of veggies and take the rest of cooked veggies and all of the soupy sauce and top over chicken in dish. Sprinkle shredded cheese over everything and then crumble tortilla chips on top of cheese. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and golden brown.

Serve with side of sour cream, salsa, and saffron rice.

little drops of heaven -- wrapped in bacon!

On a recent trip to Boston during Memorial weekend, I went for drinks with my friends Amy and Kathleen at this place called Drink in the Waterfront/Seaport neighborhood. This place was fantastic. They made specialty drinks from herbs. Who wouldn't want a cocktail made with rosemary? So refreshing.

While quenching our thirst, Kathleen recommended that we have the bacon-wrapped dates as munchie snacks. Boy oh boy were these phenomenal! These were bacon-wrapped dates with a toasted almond in the center as a pit and on top of a gorgonzola cheese sauce. With one bite, you got the saltiness and crispiness of the bacon, the chewiness and sweetness of the warm gooey date, and the extra crunch of that almond -- all rounded out with the gorgonzola cheese sauce. It's an explosion of flavor that's meant to be savored. I could definitely eat plates of this stuff. This is a must have the next time I'm up there.