Firecracker Casserole

Firecracker Casserole Haiku: "Cute name, fun entree. I'll make again; however, I would make changes." I followed the recipe exactly, only I used a little less ground beef, and added a heavy sprinkle of "Taco Seasoning I" from AR. It came out a little watery and difficult to serve, and the tortillas in the middle were kinda a slippery afterthought. I plan on making this again, b/c the taste was spot-on, but I would combine the soup/Rotel w/ the beef and beans, and eliminate the tortillas, and instead, just serve it w/ crushed tortilla chips on top. Also making this extremely tasty was garnishing it w/ chopped lettuce, cilantro, and a blob of sour cream.

I gave this 3 stars as the recipe was written due to blandness, 5 stars after it was tweaked for added flavor and zip. Why do so many recipes that call for browning ground beef with onion and or garlic say to drain excess fat afterwards? You're draining away some of the flavor of the onion and garlic! I brown my ground beef alone and drain any excess fat, remove the ground beef and using the same pan brown my onions and garlic. Too this recipe I used tomatoes with habenero instead of green chilies, 2 cloves of garlic grated on a rasp, 1 can of black olives very coarsely chopped and a can of whole kernel corn, drained. As the entree it actually made 6 servings.

This recipe is wonderful!! The only change I made was, I only had a 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef and it turned out just great. I think it might have been a little dry with 2 pounds of ground beef. REALLY REALLY good recipe. I went back for seconds, and I never do that!! Will make again for sure!!!

Made this for dinner tonight, and it is delicious! The only thing I changed was that I added a can of whole kernel corn (drained) to the meat mixture. I'll definitely make this again!

Cook the chili powder, cumin & salt with the ground beef to season the meat. Cut the tortillas into triangles and layer this casserole more like you would a lasagna. If you use flour tortillas, they will be more dumplinglike texture, corn tortillas are more enchillada like. I prefer flour in casseroles like this.

I loved this recipe, I left out the beans. I used two cups of fat free cheese. Also I shredded up the tortillas. Next time I will only use 1 1/2 LB Hamb, use Mexican blend cheese and add 1/4 enchilada sauce to the hamb.

I made this for dinner tonight and both my husband and son had seconds. It is absolutely phenomenal! The only changes that I made (out of necessity) was to use six tortillas instead of four because mine were the small ones and the family sized can of cream of mushroom, again because it is what I had on hand. I am adding this to the regular rotation. Thanks lajune for a phenomenal new spin on the Mexican casserole!

I made all 10 servings for myself and my husband, and we ate ALL of it. Not in one night, but as left overs. I followed the most helpful review and instead of using the chili powder, cumin and salt I used taco seasoning. I also used crushed tortilla chips in place of the flour tortilla's, this added a nice crunch to the initial meal. The only problem with the tortilla chips is that they get soggy when you eat the left overs. I might not add any chips next time and sprinkle them on afterwards.

casey loved it, don't change recipe.

Wow! How good is this recipe! And so easy, I can't believe it. Next time I think I'll cut the meat to 1 1/2 lbs and add in a can of corn just for fun. I will definitely be making this many times in the future.

I thought this was pretty good and very easy. The only thing I did differently was that I used White American instead of Cheddar because it was all I had. Next time, I think I will use a little more spice ;)

delicious as written, but I think next time I may use corn tortillas and mix part of the tomato/cream of mushroom soup in with the hamburger to make it less dry. May try Mexican cheese blend also. Thanks lajune!!

Delicious! Really flavorful and easy to make. Both my husband and I loved it.

not very good.

This is a good recipe. After taking a couple of bites I added crushed tortilla chips and it made it a lot better in my opinion. Next time I may add an extra can of rotel to the meat mixture and also some corn.

This recipe is awesome! Great taste, quick and easy plus my family loves it. Thanks :)

My hubby called this "glorified taco meat". I used 1 pound of ground beef (otherwise this would have been very dry). I did use up a packet of hot taco seasoning mix in place of the chili powder and ground cumin. I did not add the flour tortillas, would be soggy, but did crumble taco shells on top. It is almost 90 degrees in St. Louis Missouri so the last thing you want to do is use the oven so I made this on the stove top. As a dinner, this is so-so. This would be great taco or nacho meat. You could even throw everything into the crock pot and serve this as a dip.

just ok. Have had better mexican casseroles.

I am a little surprised this gets such good reviews. I made it tonight and found it quite bland - and I added garlic powder, black pepper and a little cayenne pepper. I might make it again but would make some changes. I'd try picante sauce instead of diced tomatoes and break up some nacho cheese Dorito chips and sprinkle them just under the cheese.

my family loved this dish, i added cottage cheese, green pepper, corn, kidney beans and salsa to the ingredients and substituted plain diced tomatoes (so my daughter could eat it). mixed everything together (except the cheese and tortillas) put in casserole dish covered with cheese and topped with buttered tortillas.....DELICIOUS!!!

This was absolutely delicious! I used crushed tortilla chips instead of flour tortillas and added 1 cup salsa to the meat mixture. Also subbed pkgs of taco and chili seasonings for the spices. Served with sour cream....yummm!

Excellent flavor, love it!I made this twice now, the second time however I added an extra layer, same ingredients, more tortillas. My whole family thinks this is so good. I will make this a lot. Thanks

This is almost the same recipe that I got from Taste of Home magazine years ago. It is my husbands favorite dish. I do change it by using kidney beans because we don't like black. I also pour the rotel/soup mixture of the meat mixture, then add a layer of crushed tostitos, and then add the cheese. These changes came after making the original recipe. Thanks for posting this!

Really good and easy to assemble the night before - tasted and looked great! Lots of color and protein. Only wish I'd thought to buy some sour cream!

Tasted a lot like chili. I'm known as the "experimental" cook in my family so I very rarely follow recipes exactly. I placed the tortillas on the bottom of the baking dish and then mixed all of the ingredients together and put that on top, then covered with cheese and crushed nacho cheese tortilla chips. Not bad at all. Could have used a dollop of sour cream or something like that.

the tortilla portion turned into a slimy mess..the bean/meat portion was flavor-less.

Me and my boyfriend made this for dinner one night and really liked it but i'm only giving it 4 stars because I thought it was a little too salty. Next time I will leave out the 1/2 t of salt. Also we prefer corn tortillas and that's what we used instead of flour. Overall a keeper that was very tasty.

For those of you who want more flavor...add 1 or 2 chopped jalapeños with the onions. Use rotel tomatoes instead of tomatos with chilis, and swap ranch style beans for the beans. Google ranch style beans so you know what they look like and then find them at walmart and target etc. If you make these changes only use 1 tsp of cumin. Oh....and mix the tomatoes with the cream of mushroom soup. It will make your life easy.

I used salsa instead of tomatoes, and i didn't have ground cumin so i used crushed coliander seeds, and just mixed everything together, i might leave out the shells, they get slimy, and then top it with cheese then taco chips and cheese again... such a good flavor, i think the coliander made it almost taste like it had a hint of lime.

This turned out great, I didn't make any substitutions and it had great flavor.

Very simple and quick to make. I wasn't sure if it would be spicey as we like spicey but it was good. A nice heat and great flavour. I normally do not use canned soups so I was hesitate but it was really good. Eveyrone loved it. The only thing I changed was no beans because I'm allergic to beans.

The tortillas were a little mushy - will just have those on the side for next time....or just layer on top at the end and serve upside down. Kids recommended using crushed tortilla chips on top as a good change for next time.

excellent! We used corn tortillas instead :)

Horribly delicious we added more cheese with olives and bell peppers and it was delicious! :D Its a keeper in this house.

This recipe was ok. If I were to make it again I would probably use 1/2lb to 1lb less meat and ditch the tortillas in the middle. Maybe top with crushed tortillas or Doritos and bake that way like some other reviewers suggested.

My husband love the spiciness of it, but I would have liked it to have blended more. I found the meat was dry, while the top was kind of goofy. Will try to play around with to mix it up next time. Taste was still good!

This was very good. It took a few stores to find tomatoes with green chilies but I’m glad I persevered because the flavour is amazing and even tastier the second night. Next time I will try it with ground turkey. Stay tuned.

This was good. i used 1.5 lbs of beef and kidney beans instead of black beans because i ran out. i added extra cumin and a few dashes of Tabasco because others said it was bland. would be good with green beans in it as well.

This is sooo good! It's got a little bit of kick, it's pretty filling and it's super delicious. Tastes like I'm eating a taco :)

Made as directed, added leftover corn, red, yellow, and green peppers. Topped with sliced black olives. Everyone liked it.

It was great! Def enough to have for lunch too! I used taco seasoning like Bamababe suggested and put a layer of tortilla shells on the bottom too to make it easier to scoop out.

Flavor was great but we like a lot of cheese on top so if you're like us cook it with the dough on top first before putting cheese on and then add the cheese and bake a little longer. Otherwise you end up with raw dough in the middle. I also used less sauce and less of the frozen veggies because I didn't want it to over power the meat amount. Will take my recommendations and make it again.

Very very good. I adjusted to half the recipe and it turned out great. Flavorful and not runny at all. Low fat, grass fed ground beef didn't even have to be drained. Will make again.

Love it!! Super hearty and simple and always is a hit!! It has a wonderful flavor but is so easy. Thanks for the recipe. I will definitely make this again!