Turkey Taco Casserole

Greetings and happy Friday to you! Today I have a dinner recipe for ya. While these generally are few and far between here at the Barbershop, I have been sharing more and more dinner recipes with you the longer I've been blogging (in case you hadn't noticed ;)). There are many dinners that we cook that are just too good not to share! And this turkey taco casserole is definitely one of those. 

Mike and I don't often cook casseroles; it's just something that we don't think to do much. But this one...this one...is a keeper for sure! After we ate this, we kept talking about how delicious it was. One thing that isn't so "delicious" about this dish is my pictures of it! Do forgive me. I realize that my pictures don't make it look super appetizing, but it's a hard dish to photograph (especially at night). However, if you want to see excellent pictures that will make your mouth water, I suggest you head over to the original source where I found this turkey taco casserole recipe, Eat, Live, Run.

Putting this recipe together was very simple. The only "time consuming" part (and honestly, it really doesn't take too long) is cooking the ground turkey on the stove. Once you cook the turkey, you layer it with several other ingredients in the pan and then just pop it in the oven! It's a recipe that would be great for a small crowd or a hungry family. ;) Mike and I each got at least 3 meals out of this!

Here are your ingredients, adapted slightly from Eat, Live, Run.

Ingredients:

-approx. 1 pound lean ground turkey

-1 medium or large onion, diced

-1 16-oz. can refried beans

-2 4-oz cans diced green chiles

-1 cup fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained

-1 Tbsp. chili powder

-2 tsp. ground cumin

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

-2 or 3 flour tortillas, cut into 1-inch strips

-1/2 cup salsa, plus more for serving

-1 and 1/2 cups reduced fat Mexican blend cheese (or cheddar)

-sour cream for serving

-avocado for serving

Instructions:

Spray an 8-inch (or a 13 x 9-inch) pan with cooking spray and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and place on medium heat. Once hot, add the ground turkey and diced onion. Brown the turkey; and when it is almost cooked through, add the chili powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix well. Add one can of the diced chiles and the diced tomatoes. Stir well and cook until the turkey is done. Remove from heat.

Spread a thin layer of the ground turkey mix on the bottom of your pan. Top with a layer of refried beans, more green chiles, a hefty sprinkle of cheese, and one of the flour tortillas, cut into strips. Repeat this process two or three times until all of the ground turkey has been used. After putting your last layer of tortilla strips on, sprinkle with salsa and remaining cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melty and bubbling. After removing casserole from oven, let sit for 15 or 20 minutes before serving. Top with sour cream and sliced avocado (and maybe some more cheese :)), if desired.

A few points to share with you... The onion was my own addition; that was not in the original recipe. And I also decreased the salt amount and only used about 1/2 teaspoon instead of the 1 and 1/4 teaspoons called for in the original. All the other ingredients listed though are from the original recipe. Feel free to adjust them according to your tastes! Don't like too much spice? Then add a little less chili powder or cut back on the green chiles. However, I will say that as is, this recipe is only mild-moderate spicy. And I'm not someone who cares for hot, spicy foods, and I could definitely tolerate this. There was only a slight kick to it. ;)

Also, feel free to use an 8-inch square pan or a 13 x 9. I used the larger pan, and it worked great. The layers were probably just a little thinner than they would have been with the 8-inch pan. A nice, easy tip for you too is to slice your flour tortillas with a pizza cutter! Works like a charm.

Such a great meal!