Cinco de Mayo, the fifth of May, has become a festive time to celebrate Mexican culture, food and music. The annual holiday often extends through the weekend when Augusta-area Mexican restaurants hold Cinco de Mayo parties with food and drink specials and mariachi bands.
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Like many Americans, I thought Cinco de Mayo celebrated Mexico's independence day, but a quick Internet search proved the holiday actually commemorates a victory over France in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
Cinco de Mayo is a great excuse to serve up a Mexican-inspired entree, and this week I've come up with a quick-and-easy chicken enchilada casserole that gets authentic Mexican flavor from canned salsa verde.
Salsa verde is a green salsa made of tomatillos, onion and jalapeno pepper. The salsa has a tart flavor from the tomatillos, a nightshade fruit similar to green tomatoes with a thin, papery covering. The jalapenos in salsa verde usually deliver a medium heat, but the heat can vary from can to can, so take a small taste before using if your family has sensitive palates.
Salsa verde is great chilled, as a dip with tortilla chips, so give it a try before you make this casserole. If you don't care for its tangy-spicy flavor, you can simply substitute traditional tomato salsa or canned Rotel tomatoes (a combination of diced tomatoes and chiles).
I found two brands of salsa verde at several supermarkets in the Hispanic foods section. La Costena Green Mexican Salsa is available in 7-ounce cans with a red label, while Herdez Salsa Verde comes in 7-ounce cans with a white label.
If you can't locate the salsa verde, Pace and Old El Paso offer "green" alternatives. Old El Paso's Green Chile Enchilada Sauce comes in 10-ounce cans and is a good substitute, though the sauce isn't quite as crisp as the salsa verde because it contains starches and thickeners. Pace Mexican Creations Verde Cooking Sauce with Tomatillos and Jalapenos is a very good substitute that comes in 14-ounce jars with orange lids.
The casserole is a cinch to prepare with store-roasted rotisserie chicken. The shredded chicken is mixed with reduced-fat and reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup (look for Campbell's Healthy Request cream of chicken soup) along with a bit of the salsa verde.
Extra creaminess is added to the casserole when flour tortillas are spread with softened, reduced-fat cream cheese. This is a trick I learned when testing Pat Pandza's recipe for beefy enchiladas, a recipe that was quite popular when it first appeared in this column and later in my first cookbook.
The cream-cheese tortillas are layered with the chicken mixture and shredded cheese. The final layer is a healthy dose of the salsa verde, more cheese and chopped green onions, and then the casserole is covered and baked for 15 to 30 minutes. The casserole can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen, and leftovers reheat with satisfactory results in the microwave.
Slice the casserole into squares and top each serving with a dollop of sour cream and a scattering of diced fresh tomato. Fresh fruit salad from the produce section would be a nice counterbalance to the casserole's medium heat, and lime sorbet or frozen fruit juice bars would make a fitting dessert.
Chicken Enchilada Casserole Verde
10 fajita-size flour tortillas
8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken breast meat
1 10.75-ounce can Healthy Request cream of chicken soup
3 7-ounce containers salsa verde
2 cups reduced-fat shredded Mexican cheeses, Monterrey jack or cheddar cheese
2 green onions, washed and chopped
Reduced-fat sour cream, for garnish
Diced fresh tomato, for garnishHeat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread each tortilla with some of the softened cream cheese. Combine the shredded chicken, cream of chicken soup and one container of the salsa verde in a bowl.
Place half of the tortillas spread with cream cheese in the bottom of the baking dish, top with half of the chicken mixture and half of the cheese. Top with the remaining tortillas and chicken mixture. Pour remaining two containers of salsa verde over the top, sprinkle with the remaining cheese and sprinkle with the green onions. Cover with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until heated through. Cut into squares and serve, garnished with a dollop of reduced-fat sour cream and some diced fresh tomato.
Makes 8 servings.
Nutrition information per serving (without garnishes): 360 calories, 15 grams fat, 8 grams saturated fat, 79 milligrams cholesterol, 29 grams protein, 26 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 951 milligrams sodium.
Nutrition analysis provided by Michelle Baglio, a licensed and registered dietitian of the Augusta District Dietetic Association.
COMING MAY 12: Frozen strawberry yogurt pie is a refreshing dessert that highlights the season's ripe berries.See Karin prepare the recipe at noon Tuesday on WJBF-TV (Channel 6).
Write to Karin Calloway in care of The Augusta Chronicle Newsroom, P.O. Box 1928, Augusta, GA 30903. Or send e-mail to karin.callaway@comcast.net. You can find previous Quick Cooking recipes through the online archive at AugustaChronicle.com/karin.
