This was no joke one of the yummiest diners I’ve made in a long time. That may be because I took the last couple of months off from making good dinners due to exhaustion and being in a pre-holiday funk. The new year has arrived though and I am reinvigorated! I set a goal to make 52 new recipes this year and this is the first of many! The best part of this meal is that it was only 40 minutes from start to finish. This would be a great dish to take to a potluck or any gathering.
Chicken Enchilada Pasta
- 1 package corn pasta
- 1 can of enchilada sauce
- 2 diced cooked chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 1 cup shredded cheese
- 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
- 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
- 1/2 cup tortilla strips
- Cilantro for garnish
Start by cooking your chicken. I will often cook up a bunch of chicken breasts at once and save them for future recipes. This drastically cuts down on the amount of time it takes to cook a lot of my meals and keeps me feeling more productive and more inclined to fix a home cooked meal. For this this recipe though I had a package of Foster Farms green chili chicken breasts that I had picked up for 50% off so I used those. They take about 30 minutes to bake in the oven, but the chicken is so moist and juicy that I knew it would be the perfect match for this recipe. While that was baking I cooked my pasta. I chose a corn based pasta for two reasons: I had never cooked with or eaten anything but traditional pasta and I thought since this was a Mexican inspired pasta dish it seemed fitting.
Once the pasta was done cooking I left it in the strainer and put the cream cheese, enchilada sauce, tomatoes, green onion and half the shredded cheese into the now empty pot. I reduced the heat to medium and stirred until the cream cheese was melted. Once it was totally combined into a thick sauce I added the pasta and chicken and stirred it all up. I poured the whole mixture into a 9×13 glass baking dish coated with non stick spray. I topped this with the tortilla strips and the rest of the cheese and popped it into the oven for ten minutes at 350 degrees. Once it was done cooking I pulled it out and added some chopped cilantro as a garnish.
