Dinner tonight: Black bean and chicken chilaquiles

I have been craving Mexican for like 2 weeks now, so Sunday night I decided to try to satiate the yen with some home-cooked black bean and chicken chilaquiles. Probably much healthier and way fewer calories than going out, plus there was no endless bowl of chips and salsa to feel guilty about the next day. (Sadly, there were also no margaritas!)

As usual, I made some substitutions, some intentional, some not. I didn't put in chicken at all, because I had no desire to shred two cups of chicken breast, and it felt like a flexitarian sort of day. I couldn't find salsa de chile fresco, so I bought "salsa ranchero," which came in the same size can and looked sufficient. The cheese is a longer story (feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't care. :) ). The HT by me, to my knowledge, does not carry queso blanco. At the store, I did a quick search on my phone to see what it was and what I could sub. Wikipedia said it's a soft, creamy, mild white cheese, so I thought at first that the Mexican-flavored Laughing Cow I had at home would suffice. Upon further research at home, though, I learned that it wouldn't...the appropriate substitute for queso blanco is Monterrey Jack, which I didn't have at home. I didn't feel like going back to the store, so on the way home from a movie before dinner P and I swung by Whole Foods. They had the jack, but they *also* had queso blanco! I was torn. In the end, I went the lazy cheapskate route and bought the pre-shredded MJ. It was made by cows who have been treated humanely, of course.

Yummy, yum, yum. P made a good point that this is essentially "Mexican lasagna." Comforting, easy to assemble, and totally fulfilled my Mexican craving. The flavors were nice and dark and smoky, and it was super-carby with the tortilla and beans. The one thing I would change is maybe put ~1/4 cup more broth in it...it was a teensy bit dry for me.

Sorry. No picture. Camera was AWOL. Nice pic on the CL site though!