Ye ol’ Herbed Chicken Casserole
I remember this at so many parties when I was growing up. This was a company dish and it was always a favorite of mine. The Pimento-Mushroom sauce is the best part!
Mom would make it big batches and serve a crowd. The problem with this is that the old original recipe started by boiling whole chickens. Then you had to de-bone and cut up the chicken. There was always someone doing it who wasn’t very careful and I always found the “boingy” bit of cartlidge or something off-putting. I think for this recipe the boneless, skinless chicken breasts keep that from happening.
Since we are looking for ways to reduce the meat in recipes, I recently tried this using a Gardein “chicken” strips. They come in a 10 oz package and I think you will need 2 for this recipe.
Yield: 8-12 servings
Time: 2 hours
9x12 baking dish
325 degrees
Ingredients:
8 oz Herb-seasoned stuffing mix (Pepperidge farm is a good choice)
5 whole chicken breasts 0r 2 bags of Gardein Chicken Strips
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 cup butter
pepper to taste
6 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup flour
Instructions:
Cover chicken with water. Add celery, green pepper and seasoned salt. Simmer until tender. Remove chicken and let cool. Cube chicken. Strain and reserve broth.
For a vegetarian option, use the Gardien chicken strips and a carton of veggie broth. Thaw and cube the “chicken”. Season the broth with seasoned salt, if needed.
Mix stuffing with 1.5 cup broth. (Add the celery and green peppers to this if you are making the vegetarian version.)
Blend flour into melted butter and add remaining broth to make four cups. Beat eggs and slowly stir into broth mixture. Cook until thick, stirring constantly, and add more seasonings if needed. Set aside.
Spray non-stick spray on a 9x12 baking dish. Spread stuffing on the bottom. top with chicken, and pour broth mixture over all. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes before serving. Cut into squares and pour pimiento-mushroom sauce (below) over the top.
Pimento-mushroom sauce:
1 can low fat Cream of mushroom soup
1/4 can Condensed skim milk
1/4 cup chopped pimientos
1 cup low fat sour cream
Mix well. Heat through but do not boil. Serve over chicken squares.
Crowd Pleaser
This multiplies well‼ Mom always made it in big batches. You can use counter pans and consider each one 40 servings.
Multiply everything by 4 for each counter pan. Otherwise follow the instructions, but double the baking time.