Chicken Enchilada Casserole (with Quinoa or Cauliflower Rice)

12/13/2018

Chicken Enchilada Casserole (with Quinoa or Cauliflower Rice)

This Quinoa Enchilada Casserole has been a tried-and-true WNB recipe for nearly 4 years! It's been in need of a serious makeover for a while... some fresh, new photos and a few tweaks to the ingredients were a necessity, and I'm very excited that the time has finally come to share the not-so-new, but very-much-improved recipe! If you loved the recipe before, you're going to love it even more now! It's just as delicious as always, but a bit quicker to throw together and there's a new option to make it into a cauliflower rice enchilada casserole instead of quinoa, which is actually my favorite way to do it!  

This  recipe makes a huge batch so you can easily take it to work for lunch for a couple days, use it as leftovers for dinner, or serve it to a big group. It's actually ideal for entertaining because you just need to throw a bunch of ingredients into a single pot, the clean-up is super easy, and you don't have to make a whole bunch of sides to serve with it like you would a typical entrée. It's also easily customize-able and pretty much impossible to mess up! Throw in any veggies you'd like, use any protein of your choice, make a homemade enchilada sauce (I love this one) or go store-bought, top it with avocado, salsa, guacamole, hot sauce... make it your own! If you do go with a store-bought enchilada sauce, just make sure you check the ingredients and find one that's not made with added sugar or poor-quality oil like canola oil - I like this one from Whole Foods. As you'll see in the instructions below, you can make this recipe with quinoa or with cauliflower rice. I find that it's still super satisfying and filling with cauliflower rice but it feels much lighter than with the quinoa (you seriously don't miss the quinoa or actual rice), but like I said, it's foolproof - you can't go wrong either way! 

Ingredients
2 cups uncooked quinoa OR 4 cups riced cauliflower
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded (feel free to use a pre-made rotisserie chicken to make it extra quick)
1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce (store-bought (I like this one) or homemade (try this recipe!)
1/4 cup organic Mexican cheese blend
Salt & pepper to taste
1 avocado, sliced
Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onions or chives, and serve with lime wedges.

Serves 4.​

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. If using quinoa, cook it according to package instructions. Prepare the rest of the recipe while the quinoa is cooking.  
2. Make the chicken. You can either do so in the instant pot (like this!), boil it & shred it, cook it in a skillet on the stove, or buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it up.
3. In a large oven-safe skillet or dutch oven, warm 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped bell peppers and onions and sauté for a couple minutes until they begin to soften and become fragrant.
4. If you're using cauliflower rice, pour the riced cauliflower into the skillet with the onions and bell peppers. Continue to sauté until warmed through. (Otherwise, add the cooked quinoa.)
5. Add black beans, shredded chicken, and enchilada sauce, and mix everything until evenly combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Sprinkle cheese on top, then place in the oven until the cheese melts, about 3 minutes. You can also set the oven to broil to get the cheese bubbly and golden, but make sure you watch it closely so it doesn't burn!  
7. Remove from oven and garnish with sliced avocado, chopped cilantro, and green onions or chives. Serve with lime wedges on the side.
8. Enjoy!

And because I'm way too nostalgic to delete my videos when giving my old recipes a makeover, you can check out the original video for the Quinoa Enchilada Casserole that I made for one of my besties, Stephanie's birthday celebration four years ago! These were before the days of the quick 60-second hands-in-pans videos - how quickly these things change, right!? Hope you enjoy! And can't wait to hear how you like the updated recipe!