Sometimes I'm a slow learner.  Several people have written to me over the years asking for the recipe for Butch's Green Chili Casserole.  It isn't really Butch's.  The original recipe came from my mother, Evie Busk, who raised and fed seven children without ever having the benefit of either a microwave or a dishwasher.  (She did have dishwashers, actually, and dishwipers, too--the two-legged kind.)


As I wrote that down I happened to think of something else from those days.  The dish-washing part of doing the dishes was not a much sought after duty.  For some reason dish-wiping was.  Rather than assign those tasks on an arbitrary basis, our parents established the rule that someone had to declare themselves "wiper" during the course of the meal.  One sister, who shall remain nameless, always managed to beat everyone else to the punch.  As we finished saying grace she would say, "Amen. Wiper."  And she might have added "Gotcha" as well, because she always did.


But back to the casserole.  My mother wasn't a gourmet cook by any means, but she provided nutritious meals, three times a day, on a budget that was pretty thin at times.  And for most of the time my brothers and I were in elementary school, we walked home from Greenway School for a home cooked hot lunch.  How I envied those other kids who were lucky enough to "take their lunches" and who got to sit in the lunchroom over the noon hour, swapping sandwiches and Twinkies.  (Twinkies, by the way, were pretty much beyond the pale of our grocery budget  and were considered to be an amazing treat on those rare occasions when we did have them.)


This is to say that my mother was a good cook who did it every day.  When our father retired from the insurance business in the early eighties, my mother said to him, "You're retiring?  I'm retiring.  The kitchen is closed!"  And believe me, she made that one stick.  


But back to the casserole.  People have asked for the recipe.  And after sending it out on an individual basis, I finally decided that posting it would be a good idea.  And here it is.


 Evie Busk’s Green Chili Casserole from J. A. Jance

 

You won’t find my mother's recipe for Green Chili Casserole on Food TV because, as far as I know, it's never been written down.

 

Here it is:  
Click here to get a .pdf copy to print 3x5 Card16_Green_Chili_Cassarole_files/Green%20Chile%203x5%20card.pdf

 

1 can diced green chilies,

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup diced green onions.

1 pound grated sharp cheddar cheese

1dozen corn tortillas.      

2 cups oil.

 

Heat oil and cook tortillas until done then allow to cool on paper towels.

Stir together soup, green onions and green chilies in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring to avoid scorching.

 

Spoon a layer of the soup mixture into a lightly greased casserole dish, add layer of tortillas topped with cheese.  Continue until used up.  Top layer should have cheese on top.  Bake at 425 degrees for approximately twenty minutes.  Serve with refried beans and salad.