King Ranch Chicken

As promised to my loyal few followers: the recipe! Now this recipe is the one I learned from my family. There are probably twelve different ways to make this casserole. Mine is just the one I use because it's the one I grew up on. I will try to list all the variations I've experimented with though so you can pick and choose to suit your family!

Ingredients:

• One whole chicken (or if you are in a hurry 4 breasts or 2 breasts 2 thighs if you want the dark meat light meat combo)
• One bag corn chips or 2 cups rice or 10 tortillas (depends on what you want, each is different flavor/texture wise)
• One can Ro*Tel or similar product. (We use Hatch Diced Tomato and Green Chile mix now because that's what they have up here.)
• One large can chicken broth or one cup stock if you are using the whole chicken and corn chips.(if you are using rice 2 cans/cups, small can or1/2 cup if using tortillas.)
• One can cream of chicken soup.
• Cheese to cover. (We use either Mexican blend or Colby Jack.)

Prep:
If you are using the whole chicken, degut it and put it in a large stock pot. Fill with water to the top, boil till cooked. Try not to add more water unless you have to so the stock is richer.
Reserve stock and allow chicken to cool.
Shred chicken, discard bones.

If you are using the breasts just boil them whole, cool them and shred them.

The Rest:

Use a 9x5 casserole dish or Medium to Large Crock pot.
Oven to 375* for 45 minutes or a Crock Pot on Low for 4-6 hours.

Layer in a casserole dish or crock pot:
Start with the corn chips or rice or tortillas. Spread evenly in the bottom.
Layer your shredded chicken over your base (evenly as well.)
Mix in a seperate bowl your Ro*Tel (drained unless you want the casserole spicier), cream of chicken and broth. Stir it up then pour it over your base and chicken. Also evenly.
Final layer is your cheese. There's no set limit to how little or how much. Depends on what your family likes or the depth of your dish/pot I suppose.
Place in oven or turn on crock pot.

I made this yesterday in the crock pot and it turned out very good, however I suggest using a crock pot liner, especially with corn chips or tortillas. The corn chips baked on to the sides after 7 hours, I would imagine the tortillas would do the same. I had to leave it on since my husband was late getting home.