For those days when <waves hand> all of this is just too much to bear, but you’d still rather not ingest cream-o-chemical soup.
For the sauce:
1 tbs bacon fat
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp celery seeds
2 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
2 cans low sodium chicken stock
1 15oz can stewed tomatoes w/ chiles
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste. (Maybe some ground cumin too. MOAR cumin!)
For the casserole:
1 sauce recipe as above
1 lb shredded chicken
1 lb sliced crimini mushrooms, sautéd in bacon fat
3.8 oz can of ripe olives, sliced
1 cup jack cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
20 corn tortillas, sliced in half
I generally sauté the mushrooms in bacon fat in a straight sided skillet and set them aside. Then in that pan, add some more bacon fat (Sorry… we’re not here for health today we’re here for the calming of existential dread) and soften your onions and bell pepper in that. Add the crushed garlic and stir through till soft. Then add all of the seasonings except the salt and pepper. Fry them until the kitchen smells like you might survive after all. Add the butter to melt, then add the flour and mix until it all forms a paste. Let that brown a little. Add the chicken stock and (well strained) tomatoes. Simmer until it thickens then turn off the heat and add the sour cream. Taste for salt and pepper. Decide it’s not quite right and add some ground cumin. Then maybe a little more cumin. This is the sauce! You did this to avoid cream of chemical shit storm in a can and it’s worth it.
Dump a little sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish (Mine was glass and 13×9). Then cover the sauce w/ tortilla halves. Layer on more sauce, some chicken, olives, mushrooms. Then more tortillas, then sauce, then chicken/olives/mushrooms, finish this layer with the jack cheese. MORE tortillas but instead of sauce go straight to chicken/olives/mushrooms. Then the rest of the sauce spread evenly over the top. Try to have a little more than 1/3 of the sauce left for this step. Sharp cheddar cheese on the now very saucy top. Cover with foil.
I generally make casseroles either the day before or at lunch time and refrigerate, then bang them in a 400 F oven covered for 45 minutes and uncovered until bubbly. About 15 minutes. This is a good time to go take a statin and some blood pressure meds. Check that your jeans are sufficiently stretchy.
Let it stand on the counter for a while so that it sets and you avoid pizza mouth blisters. Eat it. Keep eating until you either burst or stop feeling all of the feelings you don’t want to be feeling.
At least it’s no preservatives… right?
Not The Knowing One 