Mexican Chicken Recipe (2024)

This Mexican Shredded Chicken Recipe is one of my family’s favorite meals. Easy to prepare and quick to cook, this is a winning dinner dish any night of the week.

Mexican Shredded Chicken Casserole

This Mexican Shredded Chicken is a family favorite dinner, one the whole family enjoy and I can safely say that we RARELY have leftovers!

I have also heard this recipe (or variations of it) referred to as Doritos Chicken or Rotel Chicken. My mom started making this for us when I was very young and I love that I now make this same recipe for my own kids.

My kids love this Cheesy Dorito Chicken Casserole and it’s a regular dinner in our house. In fact, now that my boysare all in or approaching the teenage years, I now have to DOUBLE this recipe, using a 9×13-inch sized pan. I can only imagine it’ll get worse the older they get!

This Mexican Chicken Casserole is made with shredded chicken, so it’s also a great way of using up leftover chicken from the weekend roast.

I am huge fan of any Quick and Easy Chicken Casserole. This is less about cooking, more of an assembly job. Prepared in 10 minutes, then a quick 40 minutes in the oven and dinner is ready.

How to make Cheesy Dorito Chicken Casserole:

Start by gathering together all of the ingredients, ready to start assembling.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.

Next, spray a 9×13-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Layer the Doritos into the bottom of the pan.

Layer the shredded chicken on top of the Doritos.

Add the soups, chopped tomatoes, spices and seasonings into a large bowl.

Next, chop up one onion and sauté the onion in a little oil until translucent

Add the cooked onion to the sauce and give everything a good stir to combine.

Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken.

Place the dish into the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Return the pan to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes until the cheese has melted.

Serve immediately.

Easy Mexican Chicken ingredients & flavor variations:

• DORITOS I use a large bag of Doritos (a 10oz bag). You can use any flavor of Doritos, nacho cheese flavor for extra cheesy or hot chili flavor for extra spicy.
• COOKED CHICKEN I use 3 cooked chicken breasts which I then shred up. However, this is a great recipe for using up leftover roast chicken. Sometimes for ease I buy a rotisserie chicken from the store and use that too.
• SOUP 2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup and one can of Cream of Mushroom Soup form the base of the sauce. You could also use Cream of Celery soup.
• ROTEL chopped tomatoes work great in this Mexican Chicken Casserole. Choose the variety of Rotel that you most enjoy, use hot if you want a real hit of chili, opt for mild is you don’t want it to be too spicy.
• SEASONING I use chili powder and garlic powder but you can add in any seasoning that you enjoy. Use a taco seasoning blend for ease and speed as that would work too.
• CHEESE I add shredded cheese to the top of this Mexican Pulled Chicken dish, 5 minutes before the end of cooking. I like to use a sharp cheddar cheese as it adds great flavor, but add any variety of shredded cheese that you and your family enjoy eating.

Additional ingredients you may want to add to this Mexican Chicken Casserole:

This recipe is really versatile so here are some other ingredients that you can add or swap:

• Swap the chicken for some shredded turkey, pulled pork or cooked ground beef instead.
• Increase the heat and add some freshly chopped jalapenos to the sauce.
• Want to add extra veggies, no problem, try adding some chopped bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms or how about a tin of sweetcorn.
• Add some chopped cilantro or parsley for a fresh herb flavor.

Serving suggestion:

This is such a filling casserole that I keep any sides on the simple side. A fresh salad or some steamed green beans would be ideal.

I also like to serve my Sprite Biscuits which are great for mopping up any extra sauce.

Recipe tips:

• Get ahead earlier in the day and sauté the onion and prepare the sauce. Keep the sauce in the refrigerator until you are ready to assemble the dish.
• This recipe is easily doubled or trebled if you a feeding a crowd.
• A great get ahead tip is that I sometimes cook chicken in my slow cooker and freeze into portions. Ready to pull out and defrost any time I plan to make this casserole or indeed any other quick chicken dish.

Don’t miss these other delicious Mexican Inspired Recipes from When Is Dinner:

• Mexican Lasagna
• Mexican Zucchini Burrito Boats
• Taco Pasta Bake
• Sopapilla Cheesecake
• Baked Tacos
• Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
• Chicken Fajita Pasta

Many readers have emailed me asking about what brand of chicken I prefer to use. Over the years, we have lived in many states, so sometimes the brand changes according to what’s available locally. Currently, I prefer to order directly from Perdue Chicken. I bulk buy the value packs, because we eat chicken several times each week. the packages are portioned out and arrive in a box with dry ice. We live in Texas, and even in the summer we’ve never experienced a problem with the chicken not being cold. I immediately put what we’ll use in a few days into the refrigerator and the rest in the freezer. To thaw, a day or so before I plan to use a pack, I move it from the freezer to the fridge.

This works so well for us in this phase of life. Our children are ages 17+, one works a full time job, another lives away at college most of the year. This means that the number of people eating dinner here on any given night can vary, so the smaller portioned packages work great. If it’s just 2 of us, I use one package. For 3+ I use the appropriate amount. This prevents food waste so I save on the grocery bill AND I know I’m getting a quality product at an affordable price.