Recipe: Mexican Pasta Bake

Well, originally this was going to be a recipe review of this delicious-looking recipe for Stuffed Mexican shells over at thewaytohisheart.wordpress.com

http://thewaytohisheart.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/mexican-stuffed-shells/

Doesn't it look awesome?

Well, this recipe is not it.

Apparently, when we bought pasta a while ago, we bought small shells instead of large without thinking about it. Also, we planned on making this with chicken instead of beef, and making extra sauce. So really, I'd call that recipe up there inspiration, and I would absolutely give it a go if you get a wild hair for some Mexican shells. We still plan to try it some day!

But I was sitting in my kitchen with about half the ingredients I would actually need to make this dish and brainstorming what we could make with our silly, tiny shells. Pasta bake it was - and we think it turned out at least as good as our version of those shells would've been!

You need:

Half a box of small shell pasta - about 8 oz

2 chicken breasts

1 sweet onion

Packet of taco seasoning

1 small can enchilada sauce (about 9-10 oz)

1 larger can enchilada sauce (19 oz)

1 8oz package fat free cream cheese

Shredded cheddar

Preparation:

- Toss the chicken breasts and the diced sweet onion in a small crock pot with a small can of enchilada sauce. Heat it on high for 2-3 hours, until the chicken is cooked through and shreddable. If there's any extra liquid in the crock pot, drain it, then turn the machine off. After you shred, toss in the whole packet of taco seasoning and stir it in, then set aside. (Side note: you can stop at this step and use this shredded chicken in any Mexican-inspired dish you have. It's great all by itself)

- Boil the pasta according to package directions.

- While the pasta is boiling, get started on the sauce - mix the large can enchilada sauce with the 8 oz package of fat free cream cheese. I can never get the cream cheese to mix in all the way, so I microwaved it for a little while in 30 second increments until I was able to mostly mix it in.

- When everything is ready, layer the pasta in the bottom of a large rectangular baking dish. Spoon the chicken on top, then cover with the enchilada sauce. Sprinkle some sharp cheddar on the top and pop it in the oven until it's heated through - about 10 minutes.

- Enjoy!

This is what ours ended up looking like. 

Definitely not as cute as those shells up there.

Here's a note about the sauce - I like things super saucy. Soupy, even. Using this large amount of enchilada sauce and one package of cream cheese will leave this bake pretty thin, and when you eat it it may remind you of taco soup. I. Love. That. But if you want your pasta sauce thicker, just adjust the cream cheese-enchilada sauce proportions until it's something closer to what you want.

I'm not going to give a long paragraph on how awesome I think this is (cause I'm obviously biased - thank you, inspiration blog!), but TBird loved it too and it will probably be pretty regular in our rotation. It's simple, filling, and this recipe makes so much we'll be eating it for lunch for the next 2 days (so it's not super high in calories either, if you're eating reasonable sized portions). I give it an A+ for affordable one-pot dishes that taste like much more. 

Next up: Mushroom Stroganoff from SkinnyTaste for Meatless Mondays. Get excited!