Leftover baked chicken is so versatile, and I always seem to have a bit in the freezer. I wanted a hot chicken-type casserole to utilize a bit of leftover chicken and came up with this burrito recipe. The recipe includes a few ingredients unique to burritos, and excludes a few you would commonly expect. It’s not your typical burrito that always seems to have lots of beans and cheese. Baked Chicken Burritos have no cheese, beans, or tomatoes in the filling or sauce. All too often people just think ‘no’ as soon as they hear burrito because they assume there will be a bit of heat involved from peppers and hot spices. My recipe has lots of flavor, but not a lot of heat. Celery and water chestnuts supply the crunch and my easy sauce provides a richness that will fool you as it is not super high in calories. Mix some up to eat now or freeze to bake later for a quick, comfort-food dinner.
For six large burritos you will need:
6 whole-grain, 8-inch tortillas
2 cups-cooked chicken, roughly chopped
2-tablespoons dried, minced onion
1/3-cup frozen, chopped spinach, thawed
1 -8-ounce can sliced-water chestnuts, chopped
1-4 ounce-can mild green chilies, drained. Reserve liquid.
½-cup minced celery
1-teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 can cream of mushroom soup*
½-cup fat free milk
1/3 cup fat-free mayonnaise
2-tablespoon fresh or dried parsley.
In a large bowl add the chicken, onion, spinach, celery and chestnuts and mix well. Add the liquid from the drained chilies and mayonnaise. Mix again. Add all the spices except the parsley. Stir and set aside. In a separate bowl add the soup, the drained chilies, and milk. Stir well to blend. Warm the tortillas in your microwave to make them soft enough to roll without cracking. Spray an 11 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray. In the bottom of the pan spread ¼ cup of the soup mixture. On the center of each tortilla place a half-cup of the chicken filling. Spread out in a line along the width of the tortilla. Roll up and tuck in the end before completing the rolling process. Place each filled and closed tortilla in the prepared baking dish. Once the filled tortillas are in the pan pour the remaining sauce evenly over the tortillas. Garnish with parsley. Cover the 
pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes in a preheated 350˚ oven. Remove the foil after 20 minutes and bake an additional 10 minutes. You can freeze the filled, unbaked tortillas covered with sauce in a foil wrapped pan and bake them right from the freezer.
*If you are not a canned soup fan, make a 1-1/2 cup white sauce. Add ¼-cup chopped mushrooms and the drained green chilies for your sauce.
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