This Creamy King Ranch Casserole Recipe Has a “Texas-Measurement Fan Membership”

In 1991, the Miami Herald boldly declared that King Ranch casserole had a “Texas-size fan membership.” I’m not shocked: the dish, which consists of shredded rooster, corn tortillas, tomatoes, bell peppers, and loads of cheese layered with cream of rooster soup, actually is the last word consolation meals. Recipes for King Ranch casserole—often known as King Ranch rooster or King Ranch rooster casserole—abound on the web and in outdated cookbooks. Some Texans, together with cookbook writer Sandy Pollock (one half of The Casserole Queens), imagine the dish embodies the style of the Lone Star State. Although the dish is called for King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas, the recipe’s precise origins stay a thriller.

A Transient Historical past of King Ranch Casserole

“Nobody appears to know who invented it,” the journalist Anne Dingus wrote in a 1989 situation of Texas Month-to-month, referring to King Ranch casserole. Dingus factors to chilaquiles—a dish with comparable substances—because the inspiration for the casserole. “However the dish owes as a lot to publish–World Struggle Two cooking, when casseroles made with canned soups have been the peak of space-age delicacies,” she writes. “As a result of they may very well be made rapidly and frozen for later use, casseroles liberated the woman of the home.” The recipe rapidly made its method by the nation’s girls’s golf equipment, with many placing their very own spins on it by adjusting the seasoning, utilizing totally different cheeses, and even incorporating different substances reminiscent of mushrooms.

One other author, Rebecca White of The Dallas Morning News, means that the unique inspiration for the dish dates additional again, tracing it to 1913 when recipes for creamed rooster and rooster à la king have been broadly ready by residence cooks. White credit James Beard’s 1946 guide The Fireplace Cookbook with additional popularizing creamed rooster by demonstrating the “versatility and ease” of the dish, which “turned the premise of the casserole motion.” “Many beloved American casseroles like ‘the King,’” she writes, “are actually Creamed Hen with variations.”

At this time, King Ranch casserole stays a beloved dish each in and outdoors of Texas. Whereas many recipes for the dish name for rotisserie rooster and canned soup for ease, we wished to give you a flavorful, from-scratch model. The recipe under, from our Birmingham, Alabama-based check kitchen colleague Elizabeth Mervosh, depends on a couple of ideas and tips for a casserole that’s easy to arrange, stuffed with taste, and supremely satisfying. Right here’s the way to make it.

4 Ideas for Making King Ranch Casserole

Toast the spices. The rooster on this casserole will get its heat, punchy taste from toasted cumin seeds, that are integrated into the broth used to poach the rooster. Heating the cumin helps draw out its unstable compounds, leading to extra advanced aromas and flavors. 

Poach your rooster. For probably the most tender rooster, we suggest poaching it in a rooster broth evenly spiced with toasted cumin seeds and jalapeños. “You don’t understand how dry and pasty rotisserie rooster is till you style the poached rooster within the casserole,” Elizabeth says, calling the poaching a “sport changer.” As Daniel present in his testing for his poached chicken recipe, beginning the rooster in chilly (slightly than simmering) liquid helps gently deliver the rooster as much as temperature, leading to succulent meat that’s not overcooked. 

In the event you occur to have leftover rooster or wish to use rotisserie rooster as an alternative for ease, skip the poaching and add two teaspoons of floor cumin and 1 / 4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the flour and chili powder in step 5 of the recipe under.

Attain for rooster bouillon. To make the casserole base, most recipes both name for utilizing canned cream of rooster soup or thickening the broth with flour and bitter cream. Right here, we go for the latter—however incorporate a contact of granulated rooster bouillon to copy the savory taste of canned soup. The result’s a sauce that’s gentle, creamy, and packed stuffed with poultry taste.

Crisp up your tortillas. Texturally, there’s not a lot distinction between utilizing untoasted or toasted corn tortillas on this casserole since they will soften once they cook dinner both method. However taking the time to briefly toast the tortillas till they’re crisp highlights the corn tortillas’ nutty, earthy notes. Skip the step should you’re tight on time, and should you don’t have tortillas, be happy to make use of tortilla chips as an alternative—simply be mindful the layers gained’t be as even and so they gained’t be fairly as flavorful as tortillas.