I’m not sure where the name comes from but you’ll find variations of this all over the place. You can use canned cream of whatever soup or make your own homemade cream soup replacement. If you can’t find Rotel brand tomatoes, use a can of diced tomatoes and a small can of diced green chiles.
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
This creamy chicken casserole with corn tortillas and green chiles is a family favorite.
Ingredients
- 1/2 or so diced onion
- 1/2 cup or diced green peppers optional
- 2 cans cream of whatever soup good with a combo of mushroom and chicken, make your own to be really frugal!
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with chilies
- 2 cups or so diced cooked chicken
- 12 corn tortillas, cut or torn into pieces
- 2 cups grated cheese
Instructions
- Saute the onion and peppers until soft. Stir in the soups, tomatoes, and chicken.
- In a 9×13 baking pan, lay 1/3 of the tortilla pieces. 1/3 of the chicken and soup mixture on top and top with 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat the layers 2 more times (tortillas, chicken, cheese).
- If you want you can freeze this now. I like to make two 9×9 pans and freeze one for another night.
- Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. (If you froze it, thaw and bake a bit longer.)
In Texas there is a ranch named King Ranch the recipe came from there please look up King Ranch in Texas
There is a King Ranch by the Kings River In NW Arkansas. Not just in Texas and California. We had something like that sometimes we used Pork Woo Pig Sooie Razorbacks
This is a great recipe. I learned it from my mother-in-law, who got it when she lived in Brownsville, TX in the 1950’s. She uses flour tortillas, though, which make a nice variation.
This King Ranch is in the San Jaoquin Valley.J>G> Boswell-the King of California. I grew up with this casserole. It says home.
The funny thing is, no one at the King Ranch knows where the casserole got it’s name. No one in living memory can remember any of the cooks making a recipe like this.
Thanks! I have never seen this explained before.
The name comes from one of the largest working ranches in the US today. King Ranch is located in South Texas (between Corpus Christi and Brownsville) and covers over 852,000 acres. Here in South Texas, King Ranch is such a big part of our culture, that there are even special edition King Ranch Ford trucks. The recipe is indicative of the Tex-Mex food which is a staple in this part of the country.