Chicken Chile Rellano Casserole

Yet another crack-like meal. BTW, I find it strange that no one finds it strange that I refer to things as crack-like. I don't know what crack is beyond some dark movie scenes and bad Nancy Reagan voice-over don't do drugs ads from the 80s.

Yeah, so I needed to feed the bar again (it's my thing, they like to eat. works out well for everyone). Online recipe shopping is a nice way to kill a lunch hour. This one was gonzo with a couple Dano additions.

You need an 8x13 baking dish (glass/pyrex probably your best bet here), a large sauce/sautee pan for the making of the filling, and a large bowl for the battery (er, making the batter).

Get This

4 cans whole green chiles, drained and split open flat;
1 lb ground chicken (or cow, or pig, or ostrich if you're that guy);
one large sweet onion, diced (or red, or yellow, we don't discriminate here);
2-3 green onions, diced (green and white part);
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped (if you don't like it, don't use it, the original recipe didn't);
1 16oz. can refried beans (veggie, low-fat, full flavor, whatever you have);
cumin (1/2 T-ish);
oregano (1/2T-ish);
salt and pepper to taste (and to sweat the onions and season the meat in the pan);
shredded cheese of your choosing (jack, colby, Kroger mexican blend, etc.);
flour, eggs, milk, hot sauce (i'll explain this later, you'll need at least a cup of flour, a couple of eggs, and a cup of milk).

Do This To It

treat the ground chicken like ground beef. you know what to do with that. oil in the pan, then chicken for 3-4 minutes, onions and green onions for another 3-4 minutes.add the salt, pepper, cumin, oregano somewhere in here. doesn't have to be all done, there's an hour in the oven to come. stir the cilantro through at the end.

off the heat in a large bowl, mix that with the refried beans to create, well, the filling. bear with me.

about here is where you turn the oven on to 350.

8x13 baking pan, no grease, put a layer of green chiles down, leave a 1/4 to 1/2 inch ring around the outside (this means don't layer the chiles all the way to the edge y'all, there's batter comin').

put some cheese on top of the chiles, then some of the chicken/bean goodness.

repeat until you're out of stuff. top with cheese as last layer.

mix flour milk and beaten eggs into a batter. this will vary. eyeball it. don't be scared. you want it to look like pancake batter. 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 cup milk, one egg, one egg white-ish on the proportions. probably will take that to fill the baking pan, which is the goal.

fill the baking dish with the batter.

put it in your lovingly pre-heated oven for somewhere between an hour and 1.25 hours.

Esoterica

this one is worth letting set for a few so it de-liquifies enough that you can slice it and scoop it. think lasagna. you could just scoop straight out of the oven if you don't care about the meal having any shape on your plate.

some other little thoughts, I will make this again. when I do, I'll probably make the batter with cornmeal for a more rellano kinda flavor.

also, this was originally a cooking light recipe (skim milk, low-fat cheese, low-fat refrieds). it's still pretty healthy my way, but they would tisk my use of cheese and 2% milk. let 'em. it tasted good my way...would've tasted good their way too. but I added the green onions and cilantro, and it surprised me they didn't have either of those ingredients in the original.