Say goodbye to the winter blues with this gooey, bubbly dish warming up your kitchen and making you question how much cheese is too much cheese to consume on a daily basis. There’s probably no definitive answer to that question (shut up, science).
We’d like to introduce a motion to the great people of the internet to change “Dry January” into “Cheese January.” 🧀
Back to the casserole. Holy moly is it good. You can buy enchilada sauce from the store to shorten the prep time, but we decided to really go for it and made our own from scratch. As long as you add enough cheese, herbs, and Suhey Peppers into the casserole pan, it kind of doesn’t even matter what else you do as it will 100% be delicious.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
1 large red bell pepper, cored and diced
3/4 jar Suhey Peppers (preferably Hot or Original)
1 (8 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
3 cups (about 1.5 pounds) ground beef (or cooked shredded chicken)
3 cups red enchilada sauce, homemade or store-bought, divided
12 corn tortillas, halved
3 cups (or more 😉 ) shredded Monterrey Jack or Mexican blend cheese
toppings: cilantro, white onion, green onion, black olives, avocado, Suhey Peppers
Instructions:
If making homemade enchilada sauce, go ahead and make it. Here's the recipe we used. Set aside. Store bought is fine too!
Heat oven to 375°F. Mist a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper and sauté for 6-7 minutes, or until softened. Add ground beef to skillet and brown until cooked through. Drain excess fat from the pan. Add the corn and 2 cups enchilada sauce, and stir to combine. Remove from heat and set aside.
Pour about 1/2 cup of the remaining enchilada sauce in the baking dish, and spread until the bottom of the dish is evenly coated. Top with a layer of about 8 tortilla halves, so that the entire dish is covered.
Top evenly with 1/3 of the beef mixture, some evenly spaced Suhey Peppers 🌶 (Drained of oil. Save the olive oil for another cooking adventure!), and 1/3 of the cheese.
Repeat with another layer of tortillas, beef mixture, Suhey Peppers, and cheese. Followed by a final layer of tortillas, beef mixture, the remaining 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce, and cheese.
Top the final layer with some sliced black olives, chopped green onions, and some Suhey Peppers.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil, then bake for 20 minutes.
Remove pan and remove aluminum foil. Uncover and bake for 10 more minutes, until the cheese is thoroughly melted. You can set the oven to broil for a few minutes to really get the cheese bubbly and toasted.
Remove from the oven, garnish with desired toppings, and serve warm!
Recipe adapted from Gimme Some Oven.