Mexican Casserole - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

How to spice up a bland chicken casserole? ›

Try different herbs for added flavour: sage or lemon thyme work wonderfully well. For a meatier casserole, add chopped sausage or pancetta when cooking the chicken. Stir wholegrain mustard through the casserole at the end of cooking (to taste); this is especially good if you have sausage in the casserole.

The best way to is to cover it and put it into a cold oven. Covering the top will trap the steam in and keep it moist while it reheats. Set the oven temperature to 350°F and heat it to an internal temperature 165°F. Use an instant read thermometer to check that the it has reached a food safe temperature.

It's important to heat a casserole thoroughly before eating it; use an instant-read thermometer to make sure the casserole is at 165 degrees F for safe consumption. Just don't try to speed things up by cranking up the heat or you can end up with a casserole that's cooked on the outside but uncooked on the inside.

If you've already cooked your casserole and find out it's too dry, another easy fix is to warm some broth and then pour it over the top of your casserole. Cover the dish with aluminum foil to prevent the liquid from evaporating and wait for 10 minutes or so before serving.

Casseroles can really shine when they achieve a harmonious balance of flavors. Sweet, salty, spicy, and acidic elements should blend well and complement each other. Add ingredients like caramelized onions, olives, or lemon zest to give your casserole a depth of flavor.

The casserole is covered and refrigerated overnight to allow the liquid ingredients to be absorbed into the bread. This is a perishable mixture and should be cooked the morning or day after assembly.

If food has been hygienically prepared, cooled quickly after cooking (or reheating) and stored cold, reheating more than once should not increase the risk of illness. However, prolonged storage and repeated reheating will affect the taste, texture, and sometimes the nutritional quality of foods.

Fact or Fiction: You Shouldn't Reheat Leftovers More Than Once. Technically – fact. But don't panic. This just means you should portion what you're going to eat and heat only that, rather than reheating the whole of your leftovers, re-refrigerating what you don't eat, and repeating.

Make-ahead meals (especially baked casseroles) are terrific because you can completely assemble them in advance and bake them just before serving. They're the ultimate comfort food as they come bubbling hot and delicious straight from the oven to the table to the delight of family and friends.

Should I cover casserole in oven? ›

Generally, casseroles with grains, rice or pasta that will cook during the baking process are usually covered, for at least part of the time. Casseroles made of cooked ingredients are usually baked uncovered. If you like a crisper, browner top, be sure the casserole is uncovered for at least part of the bake time.

Maybe you cooked it at too high of a temperature, evaporating the water long before the rice actually cooked. Maybe you took the lid off of the pot too early, letting the steam escape. Maybe you didn't add enough liquid to begin with.

If the heat is too high, the water evaporates before the rice has a chance to fully cook. If you don't add enough water, the rice ends up dry and crunchy. And if you don't cook the rice long enough, it gets soft on the outside but doesn't cook through.

The time a casserole takes to cook will vary from 2-2½ hours for chuck, blade and thick flank, up to 4 hours for shin, leg and neck. Pork cuts for braising and casseroling normally take 1½ hours, and lamb much the same.

Add a touch of spice to your chicken breast by combining paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, ginger, garlic and olive oil to create a paste. Then cover your chicken breast with the paste and pat down to secure.

Use a brine

Brining your chicken is a foolproof way to not only add flavour to your roast but also to ensure you don't overcook the meat. Essentially a mix of salt, sugar and water, we love adding herbs, garlic or whole spices such as fennel and cumin to flavour the brine.