Hatch Chile Chicken and Rice Bake (New Mexico Style)
This dish has a warm depth of the smokey slow heat chiles and smothered saucy cheesy chicken over a bed of rice, with only 8 ingredients and 40 minutes or less and it tastes like it has been slow simmering all day.
Servings: 4
Calories:
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Breasts
- pinch of Salt
- 1 TBSP Butter
- 1 cup White Rice
- 2-3 TBSP Green and Red Hatch Chile Flakes
- 2 cups Water
- ½ Onion - thinly sliced
- 4 oz Canned Hatch Green Chiles chopped or diced
- ¼-½ cup Red Enchilada Sauce
- 4 slices Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Sprinkle the top of the chicken with salt.
- Over medium high heat, melt the butter in a large sauté pan. Add the chicken and brown both sides, about 1-2 minutes on each side. Do not cook all the way through. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In the bottom of your casserole dish, add the rice, Hatch chile flakes and water. Stir to combine.
- Place your browned chicken on top of the rice.
- Top the chicken with the thinly sliced onion.
- Layer on the canned green chiles and enchilada sauce. Pour the sauce so that it completely covers the surface of the chicken.
- Cover with a tight lid or foil, crimping the sides around the casserole dish. Bake at 350F for 17 minutes. Remove the lid, stir the rice and if the rice is not done, and there is still excess liquid in the casserole dish, re-cover and bake 8 minutes. Remove the casserole dish from the oven. Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Add the slices of cheese on top of each chicken.
- Bake at 400F, uncovered for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted. Fork fluff the rice. The rice should be fully cooked, with no excess water, the top of the rice maybe a little crunchy.
