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After sharing our delicious guacamole recipe earlier this week, we’ve decided to continue the fiesta for a few more days – and this Mexican Lasagna with White Sauce is next on the list!
This easy, creamy, cheesy Mexican Lasagna with White Sauce uses our pulled chicken recipe as part of the filling (which – by the way – is one of the most popular recipes on our site).
My husband Jack has really perfected this Mexican Lasagna with White Sauce recipe over the years. It was one of the most popular dishes at a restaurant he managed years ago. (In fact, it was so popular, it outsold the traditional Italian lasagna on the menu – it’s that good!)
This Mexican lasagna can be made with red enchilada sauce if you prefer, but today’s recipe is made with a white sauce for a creamier version. Jack layers flour tortillas with pulled chicken, corn kernels, black beans, shredded Colby Jack and ricotta cheeses, plus that creamy, zesty white sauce pulls it all together into some mighty delicious comfort food!
Paired with some delicious Mexican rice, this is a hearty and satisfying meal your family is sure to love!
This recipe was originally posted in February 2013. We have updated the photos.
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Mexican Lasagna with White Sauce
You are more than welcome to build the layers of this dish in any order you want. You could even use double the amount of tortillas and spread the ingredients out between the additional layers, however you will need a deeper baking dish if you use more tortillas.
Ingredients
White Sauce
- 1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups chicken stock, heated
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounce can chopped green chiles, drained
- 1 teaspoon or more of Rocket Fuel, or your favorite hot sauce
Lasagna
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 11 ounce can kernel corn, drained
- 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 3 tablespoons chopped scallions (white and green)
- 8 ounces Colby Jack cheese, shredded and divided
- 4 8-inch flour tortillas
- 8 ounces pulled chicken, heated
- 1 cup salsa
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter and add flour. Stir and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the raw flour smell is gone.
- Add heated chicken stock one-third at a time, stirring with a wire whisk after each addition. (This step will ensure no lumps in the sauce.) Add cayenne pepper and stir again.
- Add sour cream, salt, chiles and Rocket Fuel and stir. If you like it spicy, use more Rocket Fuel. Remove from heat and hold.
- Place canola oil, kernel corn and black beans on a sheet pan and coat with cayenne, garlic powder and salt. Place in oven and roast for 15 minutes. Stir and roast for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
- In a medium bowl mix Ricotta, egg, cilantro, scallions and 4 ounces of shredded Colby jack cheese.
- Have all of your ingredients laid out and begin to assemble.
- In a pan or glass dish roughly 9” round and at least 3 inches deep, place 1/3 of the white sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.
- Lay tortilla shell to cover sauce.
- Sprinkle the shell with an ounce of shredded cheese, then place half the bean and corn mixture over cheese. Next, add half a cup of salsa, and another ounce of shredded cheese.
- Lay another tortilla shell over the mixture.
- On this layer, add half of the ricotta cheese mixture and the remaining beans and corn. Top with another 1/3 of the white sauce.
- Lay another tortilla shell over the mixture.
- Place the second half of the ricotta cheese mixture and all of the pulled chicken, as well as the rest of the salsa and cover with the last tortilla shell.
- Cover the top tortilla shell with the remaining sauce, and remaining two ounces of Colby jack cheese.
- Place in the middle of your oven with a sheet of foil on the rack just below to catch any drips.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes until hot, bubbly and golden on top.
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Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce
Hi there. I am cooking for my best friends wedding and we are having a taco bar. I thought it would be a nice surprise to have some extra things such as this. Because there are going to be about 80 people there, I am wanting to use some very large baking pans. But ones that are also deep. Do u think I will need to increase the cooking time for a larger pan. I will be making the night before but not baking until the next day. I will let it come up to room temperature.
Hi, this is Jack.
First, I hope you have tested this recipe before trying it out live at a wedding for 80 people. Don’t get me wrong, the recipe is delicious, just want to make sure it meets your expectations. OK, back to your question. If the pans are deeper than the one we use in the recipe (three inches), then yes, they will most likely take longer to cook. If they are the same depth but longer and wider, they should take the same amount of time unless you are cooking more than one pan at a time. That would mean that the heat is slightly disapated between multiple pans which would lengthen the cooking time. The type of pan also makes a difference. In our recipe, we use a glass dish. An aluminum pan or a stainless pan will take longer than a glass pan. Lastly, the color of the pan, believe it or not, can also affect cooking times. Dark pans will cook faster than lighter colored pans.
If you give me some details, I can help trying to figure it out. Commercial oven or home oven, multiple pans per oven or one at a time, glass pans or steel, etc.? Or just give yourself some extra time and if they are done too early, hold in a water bath until service. (place the cooked lasagna in a large pan with hot water over a low flame to hold it at the right temperature without drying it out)
Hope this helps!
Good luck, Jack.
I’ve just made this dish and will be baking it when my hubby comes home, I can’t wait to taste it….
Janice
We hope you love it Janice!
This looks amazing! I am going to try this tonight for dinner!! One question I am a little scared to ask because I don’t know if I want the answer……Do you have the nutritional information? We have a trip coming up trying to “watch” what we eat!! LOL
Hi Kimberly – We don’t currently calculate the nutritional information for our recipes but there are several free online calculators such as My Fitness Pal that could provide you with the information you are looking for. Hope that helps!
Can I make this ahead if time, then cook
Hi Jill – Yes – We’d suggest bringing the Mexican Lasagna back to room temperature before baking. Or – if you bake while still chilled, bake for longer at a lower temperature to make sure that it heats all the way through without over baking the outside. Hope that helps!
I’m no Gordon Ramsey by any means, but I found a few things wrong with the directions. First, the corn and black beans mixture should be done first as it takes the longest during prep. Second, the size cooking dish you recommend for putting all of the ingredients in is way to small. I used a dish 10 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. Guess what? Not big enough to contain all of the ingredients. Overflowing in fact. Third, your cooking time was off. A lot. Fourth, the amounts you call for on some of your ingredients (i.e. the cheese) is off and doesn’t come out as cheesy as your pictures. Overall, after making adjustments to correct for your errors, it was a good (not great) recipe.
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback Benjamin! The photos you see were taken after following the recipe as written so I’m not sure why you saw such discrepancies in the results. Either way, I’m sorry you were disappointed with the recipe.
This looks absolutely amazing! Mexican food is my favorite, and we have it about once or twice a week. I’m always looking for new things to make. Can’t wait to try this!
We hope you love the recipe Christine!
This Mexican Lasagna is ridiculously delicious. We all had seconds and it was gone in no time. That’s what happens with all your recipes in this house!
Thank you so much Rick! We’re glad you all enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for taking the time to write to us today – you made our day!
WHAT IS THIS WHITESAUCE YOUR TALKING ABOUT~?~?
Hi Scarlett – The white sauce is part of the recipe!
Can I use ground beef instead of chicken I’m allergic to chicken I can’t use anything that has chicken broth or anything that has to do with chicken?
Yes! You can swap in ground beef and it will still be delicious!
Wow I love Mexican food and this lasagna seems right up my alley. Maybe I can have 2 Mexican dishes this week for dinner, as tomorrow is Taco Tuesday! Maybe I can christen Thursday as Mexican lasagna Thursdays
Great idea Jeremy! Thanks for stopping by!