Week 43 (2023) - American Southwest

The dish for the Week 43 theme, American Southwest, was surprisingly hard to choose. You would think that, with all the research I've been doing over the years for the AtWCC, I could easily pick something from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, or other areas considered to be part of the American Southwest, but there were all sorts of reasons why one dish or another didn't work for us right now (mostly having to do with spice level, since B doesn't like spicy at the moment). After some searching, I found a recipe for baked Santa Fe chicken on Kevin Is Cooking, a blog I've had success with following in the past, and figured that since Santa Fe was in the name, it should count.

I didn't really know what Santa Fe chicken was, and the only thing the name reminded me of was the Lean Cuisine Santa Fe-style rice and beans that I had eaten a lot of growing up, because I really liked the cheesy, creamy dish. Santa Fe chicken seemed to be similar - chicken with beans and melted cheese, but also assorted vegetables from the region (like corn, squash, peppers) and in this case, enchilada sauce for the salsa.

This recipe was super easy to make - a layer of black beans and seasoning, a layer of chicken pieces with seasoning, a layer of onions, bell peppers, green chiles, corn, and some enchilada sauce all baked, and then topped with pepper jack cheese and the rest of the enchilada sauce for a final bake once the chicken was fully cooked. It came together beautifully, and it was really tasty. B liked the chicken and some of the plain/raw vegetables, but was not much of a fan of the finished dish, probably because of the chiles, sauce, and mild spice. Maybe we'll try it again whenever his spice tolerance goes up!