Bobby Flay Serves Family Comfort With An Eccentric Casserole Dish

It can be a satisfying endeavor to cook a traditional recipe from start to finish, but not everyone has hours on hand to craft specialty dishes. While traditional enchiladas are corn tortillas stuffed with filling and rolled into cylinders, then nestled tightly next to one another and smothered in sauce, Bobby Flay has a casual take on an enchilada casserole that's much less labor-intensive than filling and rolling up those tortillas individually. On an episode of the "Rachel Ray Show," via YouTube, Flay shows Ray how to make chicken, mushroom, and kale enchilada casserole with a recipe that's as flexible as you need it to be.

Flay cooks chopped kale in the pan with some oil and grated cloves of garlic, which lowers the chance of the garlic burning, until it's wilted. Flay explains that he loves kale due to its hardiness and the fact that it's difficult to overcook. In another pan, Flay sautes cremini mushrooms until tender, but he notes that you can use whatever type of mushrooms you prefer, such as portobellos, wild mushrooms, or even shiitakes. Once the mushrooms and kale are both softened and thoroughly cooked, Flay combines them and adds some chopped white onions that have been previously cooked until translucent and tender, citing the need for aromatics in the dish, along with salt and pepper. 

For the sauce, Bobby Flay blends canned tomatoes with ancho, chipotle, and pasilla chiles, and a bit of honey to balance the heat level, along with some fresh lime juice for acidity and brightness. Flay shows a quick but beneficial technique of pouring a bit of the warm tomato chili sauce into a flat bowl so that he can quickly coat both sides of each tortilla with sauce before transferring them to the larger casserole dish. Similar to using sheets of pasta, Flay uses the tortillas to layer the casserole dish exactly like a lasagna, spreading the chicken, vegetables, and a mix of Monterey Jack and cotija cheeses in between each layer of tortillas, then baking the dish in the oven.

The first time he made this recipe, Flay actually used the leftovers from a rotisserie chicken from the night before. Flay emphasizes that what's great about this type of recipe is that it's flexible, allowing you to utilize things you already have in your kitchen, and if you're missing a particular ingredient, you can adjust or modify the recipe as best works for you. When making this dish at home, you could easily substitute any shredded cheeses you need to use up, like low-moisture mozzarella or even a mild cheddar. In place of kale, you could always try spinach, Swiss chard, or even collard greens. If you don't happen to have all of the chiles listed in the recipe, even just a can of chipotle in adobo will do, and you can save some to make a quick and creamy sauce to top the enchilada casserole.