Southwest Corn Casserole

Southwest Corn Casserole

My mother-in-law gave us the recipe for Corn Casserole. It is so popular that one of my cousins gave us a wedding gift of a glass casserole dish with a lid and a carrying case so that she could get this stuff warm at holidays. I am not a big ‘crushed crackers, cream of anything soup’ sort of cook. However, for potlucks we make exceptions. And really this tastes so good.

This Easter my sisters decided we would have a taco bar rather than the usual ham and mac-n-cheese. Such a good idea. I decided to change up my M-I-L’s recipe to give it more of a Southwestern flair. Such a success. I will do this again.

I used a food processor to cut up the veggies. I also froze the butter and used the food processor to slice it into thin pats before I placed it onto the cracker crumbs. I will definitely do that again, too. But all of this can be done with a knife. I substituted crushed corn chips for of part of the crackers. You can choose to do that or not. Instead of frying and crumbling 8 pieces of bacon, I just bought the precooked pieces you can find in the salad dressing aisle. You could also omit the bacon and use cream of corn soup if meat isn't your thing.

You can make this up to step five, cover it and refrigerate it overnight. Remove it from the fridge 30 minutes before you want to bake it to allow it to come to room temp. Then top it with crackers and bake.

Servings:  8-10 side dishes

Time: Time:  Active time: 10 minutes; Cook: 45 minutes, casserole in in a little over an hour

 Hardware:  Measuring cups, knives, cutting board, food processor (optional), can opener, wooden spoon, large mixing bowl, and 8.5” x 13” glass baking dish

Casserole

• ½ cup finely chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cans of Mexican corn, drained
• 1 can of shoe peg corn, drained
• 1 can of cream of bacon soup
• ½ cup crumbled bacon (about 8 slices)
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
• Cooking spray

Topping

• 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed
• ½ cup crushed corn chips (optional)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 stick of butter, sliced thin

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°
2. Chop the veggies-the smaller the better. Drain the corn. Set everything aside.
3. Spray the dish with cooking spray
4. Mix all the casserole ingredients together.
5. Pour the corn mixture into the cooking dish.
6. Crush the crackers and corn chips. Mix them together with the chili powder. Slice the butter as thin as possible. This is easier if you freeze it first.
7. Sprinkle the cracker mixture over the casserole.
8. Place the pieces of butter evenly over the crumbs.
9. Bake for 45 minutes.
10. Allow the casserole to cool slightly before serving warm.