Hatch Chile Casserole with Cream Cheese Sauce

I love hatch chile season & I love this casserole!

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 tsp. each cumin & coriander
• 1 cup corn off the cob (about 2 ears); see how I cut it off the cob in my cornbread post
• 1 can of black beans, drained
• 3-5 roasted hatch chiles (see me roast them here), diced
• about 12 corn tortillas
• shredded jack cheese
• 1-2 cups salsa (I use my homemade salsa)
• about 1/4 cup of cilantro, plus about 2 tbsp
• 1 container of cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1 green onion
• 1 lime

I served this with some zucchini and my cheesy, corny, roasted hatch chile cornbread.

Preheat oven to 350. I had 1 small white onion and 1/4 of a large red onion. I used both. Chop your onion and garlic.

I buy my meat at Homestead Farms. I love using local, grass fed meats. Find out how to find farms near you here.

Saute the meat, onion, and garlic. Drain any grease.

Add the corn (I used about 2/3 of what's shown in that container), diced chiles (I used about 5 here because they weren't the spiciest I've had), and black beans.

Dice your chiles.

Add 1-2 cups salsa (see my recipe here). I added about 1.5 cups. Add to your spicy level.

Add salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander.

Butter a glass casserole dish. Layer corn totillas on the bottom. I do a double layer on the bottom. There are 8 tortillas on the bottom layer.

Top the tortillas with the meat mix. Use a slotted spoon so any grease is left behind.

Top with cheese. Repeat the layers. For the 2nd layer of tortillas, I only use a single layer (so only 4 tortillas). Top with meat, then cheese.

Top with cilantro.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Turn on the broiler at 500 and broil for about 3 minutes. I like to broil pretty much all cheesy casseroles at the end to crisp the top a little.

I made a quick side of sauteed zucchini. Slice, add to a skillet with olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Saute on med-high for about 15 minutes.

Now for the yummy cream cheese sauce! Your cream cheese should be at room temperature.

Chop the onion and cilantro.

Whip the cream cheese.

Add the lime juice, cilantro, and green onion.

Mix.

I use this same mix for stuffed jalapenos. It's very good!! I cut the peppers in half, seed them, fill with this mix, bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. When I have bacon, I will top the peppers with some bacon pieces. So good (keep this in mind for Super Bowl!!).

There's my cheesy, corny, hatch chile cornbread. It's leftover from the night before. Top your casserole with the cream cheese goodness.

NOTE: I just put a spoonful of the cream cheese mix on my plate for the pictures so I didn't look greedy. Put believe me, after I put down the camera I at least tripled that amount!

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