Chicken Salsa Casserole - 100th Blog Post!

100 blog posts, woo! Time to celebrate with tasty noms.

My mother found this recipe when she was staying with me after I first gave birth to E. Like any mother who recently gave birth, I was ravenously hungry all the time. Having someone around to make food for you is awesome. It's doubly awesome when that someone make fabulous meals like this.

Another great benefit of this meal is the prep is absurdly easy. Chop up some chicken, plop everything in a casserole dish, and bake. This is actually the primary reason I make so many casseroles. They are so simple and delicious. This dish has the added bonus of being relatively healthy for you as well. Here is what you will need.

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 small can or corn
• 1 15oz can of black beans
• 1 16oz jar of salsa (I use medium)
• 1 cup chicken broth (or 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1 cup of water)
• 1.5 tsp cayenne  pepper
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 4 chicken tenderloins
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 2 green onions, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Drain your corn and black beans (give the beans a quick rinse). Add your corn, beans, dry rice, salsa, chicken broth, and spices to an 8x8 pan and mix well.

Quick tip: Line the pan with aluminum foil first for super fast clean up later.  

2. Cut each chicken tenderloin in half. Push them down into the mixture ensuring they are evenly dispersed as well as completely covered. The original says to cover the dish tightly in foil, but I've forgotten to do that plenty of times (mom-brain, derp), and it comes out the same every time. Cook for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes (you want your rice to be soft). 

Another tip: If you are using brown rice, you will want to soak them in very hot water first while you prep. Brown rice takes a lot longer to cook and your casserole will dry out if you attempt it without the pre-soak. Or just use white rice and you won't have this problem. 

3. When your rice is cooked, sprinkle the shredded cheddar on top and allow it to melt. If you are super impatient like me, you can stick it back in your oven for a minute to expedite the cheese melting process. Add your green onions on top and you are good to go!

Mmmmm, cheeeeeeese.

I eat everything out of bowls (no idea why, I just do), but you should now have a very delicious chicken salsa casserole. You can serve it on tortillas if you like or eat it as is. 

Nutrition

Here is the nutrition data for 1/6 of the casserole

	Calories	Fat	Sat Fat	Sodium	Carbs	Fiber	Sugar	Protein
Brown Rice	113	1	0	0	24	1.3	0	2.7
Medium Salsa	26	0	0	396	5.3	0	5.3	0
Black Beans	73	0	0	266.8	13.3	3.3	0.7	4.7
Corn	10	0.2	0	53.4	2.2	0.3	0.5	0.2
Chicken	50	0.2	0	95	0	0	0	11
Cheddar cheese	55	4.5	2.5	90	0	0	0	3.5
Total	327	5.9	2.5	901.2	44.8	4.9	6.5	22.1