If you made the Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, and managed to score extra breast meat for later use, this is a perfect follow-up complement. The recipe came to us through Deb’s mom, who pulled it together a bit differently with every batch. That means there’s a lot of play in the mix.
One of my better efforts went down when I had two large pieces of breast left from the Roasted Chicken a few nights earlier. Deb’s mom would use boiled chicken, left-over roasted chicken, ane even canned chicken meat in a pinch She relied on one of those normal bags of egg noodles, a can of Cream of Broccoli (or Cream of Celery, or Cream of Mushroom) soup, and a nice amount of grated mozzarella cheese, filling a 9 by 13 casserole dish.
But for that most successful production I scaled the recipe down somewhat to match the amount of chicken, which was perfect for a smaller casserole (about 8 by 10), generating 5 healthy portions. Here are the ingredients I used:
- Roasted chicken, the most of two breasts – in moderate chunksa
- nearly a lb of noodles (some rotelli with a large handful of bowties)
- half an onion, chopped
- a stalk of celery, diced
- 1/2 can of Cream of Chicken and Mushroom soup
- about 2/3 stick of butter and a dash of olive oil
- some broth, about a cup
- some heavy cream, about 2/3 cup
- a Tbs of corn starch
- a full package of Trader Joe’s Swiss and Gruyere shredded cheese
- some extra mozzeralla and cheddar mix to scatter on top
I began by briefly sautéing the onion and celery in some oil and butter, adding the chicken pretty soon after. As that was simmering, I began boiling some water to cook the noodles (shy of al dente). Once the chicken was well-heated, I added some broth and the canned soup. Finally, I melted about half the TJ’s cheese blend into the mixture and added the heavy cream (with corn starch blended in). This was brought to a brief boil to cook the corn starch. There was no need for salt, in that I brined the chicken, and the cheeses and soup bring salt to the party.
With the drained noodles in a large bowl, I added more butter while they were hot and mixed in rhe rest of the Trader Joe’s cheese blend. Then I combined the creamy chicken mix with the noodles. The only precaution here is that you’ll want to adjust the final mixture with broth or cream to the point that its fairly soupy. When baked, the pasta will absorb some of the liquid and you don’t want the final product to be solid; it serves up best when a bit runny, like the creamy versions of Mac ‘n Cheese. In fact, the consistency of the mix may be the only rule; everything else is fungible.
Bake in a 350-375 oven until nicely brown (the somewhat crispy top noodles are a nice textural addition). Serve with jellied cranberry sauce and some compatible vegetable (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans) or a salad.
Link to this Page: https://botanyincontext.com/chicken-noodle-casserole/