mexican lasagna

Mexican lasagna is one of my favourite meals ever. It is surprisingly good, and I mean that everyone who tries it is always all like “oh! That is surprisingly good!” The idea comes from Everybody Likes Sandwiches, an awesome blog, but I added another layer and some more ingredients, and it’s a great recipe for throwing in whatever you want.

You can really make this with whatever you have, I think I usually use:

• 1 package large tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can corn
• 1 can salsa
• 1 onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 pound chicken
• 1 cup rice (perfect use for leftover rice!)
• cheese, as much as you want – I think I usually get maybe 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
• cumin
• chili powder
• fresh coriander

First, cook the chicken in some cumin and chili powder, then shred it, and add more spice.  Next, toss the rice in cumin and chili powder.  Fry the onion and pepper in some oil with some cumin and chili powder.   Set all these ingredients aside, separately.  Line a pan with a layer of tortillas, making sure that they come up the side of the pan.  Spread a layer of refried beans along the tortillas, then add a layer of chicken, then a layer of rice, then some salsa and a layer of cheese.  You can choose whatever order to do this in, but I like the densest ingredients at the bottom so the salsa and cheese fall down.  Cover this with a layer of tortilla, again, and then another layer of refried beans, the fried veggies, the beans and corn and more cheese and salsa.  Keep doing layers until you’re out of ingredients (it usually takes me two layers…).  Bake until it’s all warm (20 minutes, if the chicken was well-cooked, or at least cooked) at 300.  The dish will be amazingly heavy, and also amazingly good!  This makes a lot of lasagna, but it is an amazing leftover, I promise!