A couple months ago, I went to a dinner gathering at my grad school friend Maria’s house – she had a bunch of us over right before we finished coursework as one last hurrah. She served us all a delicious Mexican Chicken Lasagna for dinner and ever since, I’ve been meaning to recreate it. Sunday night, it finally happened. 
One of the best things about recipes like this is that they’re so versatile! Leave out the chicken to make it vegetarian (the beans will still be plenty of protein and texture), or swap the whole grain tortillas for corn tortillas to make it gluten free. I used these sprouted grain tortillas from Ezekiel brand – my favorite – but any kind will do.
I used this recipe that Maria followed as my inspiration, but scaled it down, tweaked some of the ingredients and the amounts, used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, etc. Matt and I made the recipe together – he cooked the chicken and prepped some of the other ingredients while I did the assembling (and the photo taking, of course).
This was a fun recipe to make together – and it would be a great one to make with kids, too, because the ingredient amounts and the layers don’t have to be perfect by any means – just have fun with it!
Mexican Lasagna
Serves 8 to 10
This simple recipe is perfect to make on a Sunday and enjoy throughout the week. Leave out the chicken for a vegetarian option or use corn tortillas to make it gluten free. Serve warm, topped with avocado and hot sauce, if desired.
Ingredients:
- 6 whole grain or corn tortillas
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (optional)
- 1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (16 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 jar (16 oz) salsa
- 1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 large green pepper, chopped (we used raw peppers, but they would also be great cut into strips and sautéed)
- 2 cans (2.25 oz each) sliced ripe olives, drained
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- Fresh cilantro, chopped, if desired
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
- In one large, deep baking dish or two smaller dishes, arrange a layer of tortillas. On top of the tortillas, layer on roughly half the chicken, beans, salsa, yogurt, green pepper, olives, and cheese, in that order. Add another layer of tortillas and repeat, saving a little of the salsa and cheese to go on top. Add one final layer of tortillas and top with the rest of the salsa, then the cheese. Add some chopped cilantro, if desired.
- Bake 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
I used two pans (one shallow larger pan and one deep bread pan) because I didn’t have one large and deep enough to handle the whole recipe, and it worked just fine.
Ready to go in the oven! The smaller dish ended up only getting one layer while the other had two – so again, just be creative with this recipe – you don’t have to follow the directions perfectly for it to be delicious.
20 minutes later… voila!
Matt and I both gave it two big thumbs up.
Especially with the addition of this Cholula chili garlic hot sauce – best hot sauce ever. I’m not even really a hot sauce person and I LOVE this stuff!
Enjoy! If you make it, let me know how you like it! After eating a couple times this week, I’m now going to freeze what we have left for later – it will be nice to have it on hand for a night we’re feeling lazy and starving!