Sunday night I had a few friends over for dinner, and I needed something easy and cheap to make for them. I remembered my mother sent me this recipe for an easy Chili Relleno casserole a while back, so I decided to take a chance and make something I have never made before and have my friends be the guinea pigs. And for once it worked out!

Recipe:

Layer 2 cups cooked shredded chicken

1 diced onion

1 cup of mushrooms (cooked)

3 cans green chilies

1 cup cubed cheese

in a 9 x 11 baking dish.

Mix together 1/4 cup flour, 1 1/2 cups milk, 4 eggs & pinch of salt and pepper. Pour over the chicken layer and bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

It was really delicious and very easy. I added the mushrooms because they were about to go bad and I knew that my friend Hannah really likes mushrooms … like, more than I like bacon.

Casseroles are great last-minute dinners because they:

1. Are delicious

2. Easy to feed a crowd with

3. Re-heat perfectly for lunch (also breakfast, but shhh!)

4. Make me feel kind of like my Grandma or an old organist at a rural baptist church when I make them.

5. Usually involve melted cheese and meat in the same dish––not kosher, but I’m a baptist organist remember?

If I were to do it again, I would probably sauté the onions with the mushrooms … there’s nothing like an overly crunchy onion in a warm bake that makes you question your love of onions.  

Here is a link to the original recipe, if you are interested.

P.S. My other guest was a Frenchman and he said the casserole was “quite good.” Since French people basically invented the concept of eating food that tastes good (sorry UK) and Americans will generally eat anything, his opinion had serious weight. I’m going to take his comment to mean “OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO MY TASTE BUDS!”