Chicken & Stuffing Casserole

 

True confession here.  I love chicken (or turkey) and stuffing more than anything in the world. Even more than a good steak, and that is saying a lot! 

When we have a roasted chicken or turkey dinner I always double up on the stuffing. Its quite simply a favourite with us all.  It has ever been so.

That means that this Chicken and Stuffing Casserole also figures high on our list of things we love.  And for a variety of reasons!  First of all there is the stuffing, an abundance of it covering the top, crisp on the outside and yet moist beneath.

Secondly there is its ease of preparation. This really could NOT be easier to make. Things are simply layered in  baking dish, covered and baked.

Prepared stuffing mix.  Tinned soup with milk. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Canned green beans.

Yes, canned cream of chicken soup.  I am not a canned soup snob.  So many are and I just don't get it.  I think it has great value in the kitchen and in your store cupboard.

I was brought up on it and it never killed me. Not once.  I am now 65 years old and I have not suffered any ill effects from eating canned cream of chicken soup, nor canned cream of mushroom soup for that matter.

Actually I have not suffered any ill effects from eating any canned soup.  It has its place and anyone who turns their nose up it is being a tiny bit pretentious in my opinion.

I don't meant to offend anyone by saying that. So my apologies if you are offended.  I feel that things like this have a very valid place in my kitchen at least and I always have a few tins in the cupboard.

They are great to use in casseroles or as quick and simple sauces. With a few additions, Bob's Your Uncle. If you are worried about salt and fat there are low sodium and low fat options readily available these days.

If you really don't want to use tinned soups, you can replace them with a simple homemade cream sauce.  For every cup of cream sauce you want, melt 1 TBS of butter in a saucepan.  Once it has melted whisk in 1 TBS of flour for every  cup of sauce you want to make.

Whisk it into the butter and let it cook for several minutes to cook out any flour flavour.  Then whisk in 1/2 cup (120ml) of chicken stock, and 1/2 cup (120ml) of milk for every cup of sauce you need.

Cook, whisking constantly over medium heat, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.  Leave to simmer on low for a few minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning as required, and its ready to use. Easy peasy.

Full disclosure here. My casserole got a little bit too dark. Somehow the temperature got turned up a bit too high (not naming any names) and so . . .  it still tasted delicious, it just was no as pretty as it should have been!

This is an old, old recipe.  Probably copied from a magazine years ago and meant to advertise soup and stuffing mix. I have adapted it through time to suit my own family and what they like.

I added a can of green beans.  Another casserole we really love is green bean casserole and I thought canned green beans would work wonderfully in it. I was right.  They do.

When we were children my mother could not get us to eat mushroom soup.  There was no way we were going to even touch the tips of our tongues to it. No way. No how.

I guess we were somewhat picky in that respect, and maybe even a bit spoiled.

Then when I was ten years old we took an exciting adventure almost all the way across the North American Continent.  My father's job took him from the wilds of Manitoba to the stony shores and  cosy inlets of Nova Scotia.

My parents took advantage of the trip to take us on a bit of a holiday. We had never been on one in our lives.  We went down from Manitoba into the Dakotas and across the Northern part of America to my mother's cousin Polly's home in Vermont. What an adventure that was for us!

We got to stay in a Howard Johnson Hotel and have chips/fries and hotdogs for lunch every day if we wanted to.  And we got to meet a part of our family that we had only ever heard about but had never spent time with.

My brother, sister and I loved being at Poly and Red's house and meeting our third cousins.  We got to experience the joys of extended family and we got to enjoy Green Bean Casserole for the first time in our lives and we love LOVED it!

Even if it was made with Cream of Mushroom Soup. To be honest, I doubt we were told until after we had eaten it and enjoyed it.

 

For the most part my mother made her own soups from scratch.  French Canadian Pea Soup from the Easter ham bone, and turkey/beef/chicken vegetable soups from the leftovers of roast  and Thanksgiving dinners. Mom always had containers of soup in the freezer.

Every other kind of soup came from a can.  Tomato. Vegetable, etc. To this day I love Heinz Tomato Soup with all of my heart.  Especially if it comes with a grilled cheese sandwich along side.

I never experienced homemade tomato soup until I was an adult and had made it myself.  And it is gorgeous I will admit.

I love LOVE homemade tomato soup, but if you are in a hurry and just want some comfort in a bowl, you cannot beat a bowl of Heinz Tomato soup in my opinion.

So I guess that was an awfully round about way of convincing you that canned soups have a real purpose to serve in the modern day kitchen.  They fulfil taste needs that nothing else quite can.  Hence, I am not a canned soup snob.

This casserole is not quite the same without it and neither is green bean casserole. Or tuna casserole for that matter. Or meatballs and gravy, or poor man's steak.  

Just one glutton's opinion.

I aways like to serve this with mashed potatoes. It also goes very well with baked potatoes or even rice if you are so inclined. We enjoy the comfort of mash. 

I do use frozen mash these days.  There is only two of us and its quite practical.  Back when I was raising five children I had to peel a lot of spuds to fill them up.  A poncey bag of frozen mash would not have cut the mustard. I used to peel five pounds at a time and fill a stock pot.

When three of those five are boys with hollow legs, you need a lot of mash.  Frozen mash is quite adequate for us and with a few additions you cannot tell the difference between that and the real thing.  Never dry mashed potato flakes.  Those are not the same and my taste buds know it. 

 

I tried to balance it all out with a salad on the side.  What you see here is a sandwich plate. I always eat from a sandwich plate. Todd uses a larger full sized one.  He doesn't eat salad if he can help it. He is a thin as a rail.

Yes, it IS most annoying, and to be honest I don't think it is fair at all, but then again. My mother taught us that life was not always going to be fair. The end.

Chicken & Stuffing Casserole

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Yield: 6

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 45 Mininactive time: 10 Mintotal time: 1 H & 4 M

This delicious casserole is very simple to put together.  I usually divide it into two casserole dishes and freeze one for a later date. All you need is some mashed potatoes and a salad on the side and you have a meal fit for a king!

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 2 cans of condensed cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 oz or 295g each)
• 2 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 2/3 cup (160ml) of milk
• 1 (4 serving size) can of cut green beans, drained well
• 1 (6 oz) box of stove top stuffing mix, prepared according to package directions (Here in the UK use any package of stuffing mix prepared according to package directions)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking dish well.  Lay the chicken breasts in the pan in a single layer and scatter the drained green beans in between each.
2. Whisk together the soups and the milk. Stir in the parsley. Pour this mixture over top of the chicken and green beans. Sprinkle the prepared stuffing mix over top evenly.
3. Cover tightly with aluminium foil.  Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
4. Let stand for about 10 minutes prior to serving.

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