Merciful God, You are great in compassion and Your tenderness for us is without measure. We ask You to give us today our daily bread, and also provide for the needs of all of Your hungry children around the world. Through Christ Your Son and Our Lord. Amen.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Crunchy Chicken Casserole


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This recipe was passed down to me from my aunt through my mom and it was called
Hot Chicken Casserole. The name is so unimaginative that I actually had to spend about five minutes looking for it in my files to post it here. It is hot, I'll give it that, but it's much more than hot. It's cheesy, and creamy and crunchy and tasty, too. I renamed it here -- I think it deserved a new name. This is one of Doug's favorite chicken dishes, which is saying a lot since he is generally not fond of chicken casseroles. This recipe, and this Chicken Pot Pie are really about the only two I can serve and still receive compliments afterward.

I make this recipe without the almonds because of nut allergies, but it's much better with them. I also substitute a thick white sauce for the canned soup, but that's because I'm borderline fanatical about non-food (see the ingredients on the soup can label). My recipe for white sauce appears below. Be sure to use real mayonnaise, too. I use Hellman's.






(Hot) Crunchy Chicken Casserole

2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 T. diced onion
½ cup sliced almonds
1½ cups cooked white rice
1 can cream of chicken soup*
1 t. salt
dash pepper
½ cup chopped celery
1 T. lemon juice
¾ cup mayonnaise
1 cup water
small can crunchy Chinese chow mein noodles
1 cup shredded cheddar


Mix all ingredients except chow mein noodles and cheese.
Place in 9 x 13 pan.
Top with cheese.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
Turn oven up to 400 and top casserole with chow mein noodles.
Bake for 15 minutes.

To make ahead, mix all ingredients except chow mein noodles and cheese and refrigerate.
Bake as above.


*Canned cream of chicken soup substitute:

2 T. butter
2 T. flour
1 cup milk
2 t. chicken soup base or loose bouillon

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add flour and whisk for a minute.
Slowly add milk and soup base, and stir, over medium heat
until mixture becomes very thick and bubbly.
Cool slightly before using in recipe.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

This looks really good, and I like that it can be made up ahead of time. We'll be trying this!

Dea said...

This is going on my menu this week. Looks delicious and I know the kids would love it!

Thanks for the tip on canned soup substitute... I can't stand the stuff, so this will open up a lot of new recipes for me! :)

Barbara said...

This "thick white sauce" is a really good substitute for the cream soup, Deborah. I really just recently started using it and I've only ever tried chicken flavor, but I'm sure that if you substituted some of the milk for some mushroom cooking liquid and a handful of chopped, sauteed mushrooms, you'd have a really good cream of mushroom soup. You could do the same thing with some sauteed celery, too.

Dea said...

Sounds like a good idea with the mushrooms Barbara and probably much tastier! :)

Made this for dinner tonight and was super impressed! Really really tasty and I didn't change anything, although I did have to make my own deep fried chow mein! I think aside from Pringles you can only get fried stuff in a can in America! :)

Mandy said...

I found a link to this recipe on Pinterest. It is delicious and my kids love it. I just keep coming back to it. Not only that Buy I have used the white sauce in every recipe that calls for condensed soup ever since I first found this recipe. We had it for dinner again tonight, and as always it was delicious! Thanks so much for sharing.

Barbara said...

So glad that you are enjoying the casserole, Mandy! Thanks for telling me.

Sweetness and Light said...

Finally made this tonight, it was SO GOOD!! Everyone gobbled it up :) I did substitue water chestnuts for the celery and left out the onions, lest one particular boy find one and refuse to eat, lol!! God Bless you for sharing it and YUM!!

Barbara said...

So glad your family enjoyed it, Meredith.