Murh's Mexican Casserole

I'm in the mood for some family recipes this week.  My husband's family gave me a wonderful book of his late grandmother's recipes.  I found this one; a comforting, delicious, churchy pot-luck kind of dish that tastes like deconstructed beef enchiladas.  I'm usually not a huge fan of recipes made mostly from canned ingredients but if it's in Murh's cookbook, it's going to be good!

Ingredients:  canned cream of mushroom soup, canned cream of chicken soup, canned enchilada sauce (any kind), canned green chilies, canned chipotles in adobo, ground beef, onion, tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese.

Heat some oil in a skillet and cook a chopped onion for several minutes until softened.

Then add the ground beef and cook for several minutes until browned.

Next add in all of the canned ingredients.  I added the chipotle peppers to the original recipe because I adore them.  If using, chop them up before adding and make sure you get a little of the adobo sauce in there too.  But be careful not to overdo it - they are very spicy!

In a baking dish, layer the beef mixture.

Some tortilla chips and then a generous sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese (sorry, no picture of this step : / )

Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and melted.

I have to honestly say that I prefer Pioneer Woman's Beef Enchiladas, but this takes about 1/4 of the time to make and has a very similar flavor with the added crunch of tortilla chips.  So I'd say this recipe is a winner!  You could also easily adapt it to chicken and make the filling with sour cream instead of enchilada sauce for a quickie version of deconstructed chicken enchiladas.  Yum!

Copy and paste the recipe below into Word for printable version:

Murh's Mexican Casserole

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans enchilada sauce, any kind (I used 1 green, 1 medium red)
1 can chopped green chilies
1/2 can chipotles in adobo, chopped + 1/2 tbsp. adobo sauce
1 1/2 lb. hamburger meat
1 small onion
tortilla chips
3/4 lb. shredded cheddar cheese

Brown meat with onion.  Mix in canned ingredients.  Layer meat mixture, tortilla chips and cheese in baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.