Help! Making Mexican food for 70 people! (ingredients, burger, skillet, mushroom)

[jco]

We're hosting a dinner for about 70 people on Friday. I need to make a main dish for 70 people (35 of these are kids). I have no idea what to do. I was thinking enchiladas, but don't know how to make them. Someone suggested a Mexican casserole. What does this include? Any ideas?

[momof2dfw]

The mexican casserole I know of is pretty basic. Cooked ground beef, tortillas torn into pieces (about 4 or 5 per tortilla) and hot sauce and layered. Start w/ the tortillas on the bottom layer then ground beef, hot sauce, tortillas, beef, hot sauce and layer of tortillas covered in cheese and baked. You can use corn and flour tortillas. Make one flour casserole and one corn. Or if you have a local place that makes tamales you can order some and heat those up. LOVE home made tamales. I wish I could make the bean soup, so good. I finally got the rice down. Uncooked white rice in a skillet w/ chicken broth, tomato sauce, cumin and cook till all liquid is absorbed and rice done. Be careful not too use too much tomato sauce. I also have a really good and easy to make hot sauce recipe. Depending on how hot you like it and how hot the peppers are will dictate how many jalapenos to use. But a mess of fresh jalapeno peppers and blanch them (boil in hot water then rinse and dry, what you don't use you can freeze the whole peppers for later). In the blender put in the peppers minus the stem, one LARGE can whole, peeled tomatos drained, cumin, garlic salt and if you like cilantro you can add that too. Blend till the tomatos and peppers are chopped up small. I like the pieces small and by draining the tomatos it makes the sauce thick so that it sticks to the chip. NEVER use a metal spoon or untensil in fresh hot sauce, only plastic. The metal will react to it and cause it to lose its fresh taste and ruin it as it has no preservatives.

[Angel Bear]

Enchiladas are nice 'cause you can make a ton of them and put them in the oven

Chop up your toppings the morning of your party and you'll be all set

[Lakewooder]

Go buy a bunch of tamales - they are really cheap - you can get the traditional pork, chicken, beef, vegetarian, etc.. Then get some chili, green sauce,rice and refried beans -- add lots of chips, hot sauce, guacamole and you are done.

[TakeAhike]

That is a lot of food--70 people.

Sam's Club, Costco, Walmart--they all have frozen enchiladas, tamales in large quantities. And the condiments---

Staggering to think of the amount of avocados, tomatoes, etc (and the expense and time) that would be involved in doing everything yourself.

How many casseroles would you have to make? Some serve 8-10--so at least 8.

How about a taco salad? Always hard to guess what kids will eat. They seem to love Mexican food--most of them.

Here's one version>>>
http://tinyurl.com/yq524m


I hope all goes well.

sls

[jco]

Thank you so much for offering your advice. I didn't even think of tamales. I'll have to look into that. Living in Arizona, I don't think that should be too hard!

[Kathy McHenry]

My family loves Chicken Enchilada Casserole. I've adjusted my recipe to 70 servings. I hope this helps...

52 flour tortillas
2 1/4 gallon cooked diced chicken (do this a day or two ahead)
7 2/3 quarts condensed cream of chicken soup
2 7/8 quarts shredded cheddar
17 cans of enchilada sauce

Place 1 cup of cream of celery soup in the bottom of a 9x13 pan and spread to moisten the bottom layer. Tear or cut tortillas into strips for 9x13 pan. Place 1/2 the tortilla strips on the bottom layer of the pan. Layer 1/2 the chicken on the tortillas. Pour 1/2 the soup over the chicken. Repeat the layers, ending with the sauce. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Good luck

[doll lady]

Make some taco soup to go with all of your other stuff. This recipe is easy and really good.



2 lb. ground beef
Large Onion....diced
1 can chilli beans (you can add another can if you like beans)
1 can black beans .... drain and rinse
1 can corn .... drained (you can add another can if you like corn)
1 can rotel mexican tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 pkg. hidden valley ranch dip dry mix (note I have used the salad dressing dry mix in a pinch but I like the dip mix better)
2 1/2 cups water.

Brown the burger with the diced onion. Drain well. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for about 40 minutes. Serve with shredded cheese on top and/or spoons of sour cream.
NOTE: You don't need to add any salt....this comes from the taco mix and the hidden valley ranch dip mix

[Figment 07]

Tamale Pie is as simple and good for a crowd -- easily prepared in advance.

[LuLu108]

Here is a good recipe from Paula Deen on the Food Network, you would have to double the recipe and make about 4-5 of them in a bigger pan like one of those big aluminum throw away ones for parties. This recipe makes 8 servings.


Mexican Chicken Casserole:

Recipe courtesy Paula DeenShow: Paula's Home CookingEpisode: Family Dinner

Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cheddar cheese soup
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (10-ounce) can tomatoes
1 whole chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken
Unsalted butter, for greasing pan
1 (11 1/2-ounce) package flour tortillas
2 cups shredded Cheddar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by-9-inch pan with the cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together the 3 kinds of soup and the tomatoes. Stir in the chicken.
Layer the tortillas and the chicken mixture in the pan, beginning and ending with tortillas. Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes.


Also, I was wondering, is this a formal or casual affair? Will it be outside or inside?
A more informal type of idea:
Get one (or two if you'd like) of those quesedilla makers, they are fairly inexpensive, and set up a station for people to make their own. Have all the flour tortillas out and have some bigger containers for ground beef and shredded chicken seasoned with taco seasoning, and have all the fixin's such as black olives, shredded cheeses, etc......and also veggies such as zuccini, summer squash, bell peppers and onions, and avacadoes where people could make a veggie version if they don't like meat. Some of the kids would maybe only want to make cheese ones!

Also for desert, you could pick up one or two of those big (I think it's 5lbs.) containers of vanilla ice cream, and those huge value boxes of corn flakes, and some cinnamon/sugar mix....you could make mexican ice cream sundaes by using an ice cream scoop to scoop out balls of ice cream and then roll the balls into crushed cornflakes with cinnamon/sugar mixed in it and there you have it. You could top it with chocolate sauce or honey. Also, after rolling the balls in the cereal, you could put it on top of a cone for the kids!

Hope this helps!