Hi everyone! Today I have a family recipe to share from Michele of CalicoDaisy! Michele has a terrific blog loaded with all sorts of sewing goodies (bring a drool cloth... she's got a teeny pic of her sewing machine and it nearly made me pass out it's so cool)! Make sure you go check her blog out when you are done reading here!
Let's get started with the interview so we can learn a little more about Michele before we dive into her casserole dish!
LollyChops: What's your favorite ingredient when cooking?
Michele: Toss up between chocolate when baking and garlic/pepper when cooking up dinner.
LollyChops: What leftovers do you have lurking in your fridge right now?
Michele: Steak from Valentine's Eve Dinner, crockpot beef stew, and some things that haven't been uncovered for a while!
LollyChops: What topping(s) do you like on your pizza?
Michele: Sausage
LollyChops: What recipe do you cook best (the one you are known for or that all your friends always want you to make)?
Michele: This Auntie Lynda's Comfort Chicken Casserole and brownies.
LollyChops: If you were a salad, which dressing would you pick?
Michele: Right now, I'm into French dressing.
LollyChops: What's your favorite ice cream flavor?
Michele: Coffee
LollyChops: MINE TOO!!!!!!!! ...and Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey (I am allowed to have two right??)!
LollyChops: Butter cream frosting or whipped?
Michele: Buttercream!
LollyChops: Note: I added the "!" to her answer. Butter cream ALWAYS deserves a "!" or "!!!"
LollyChops: What do you use to clean your dishes. Plain sponge, sponge with scrubber attached to one side, scrubber handle thing with soap refill, scrubber knob thing w/wo soap refill, kitchen towel, etc…
Michele: My husband loves using the sponge with scrubby on the back. However, after watching a talk show once about how many germs are in the kitchen sink, I ALWAYS use a fresh dishcloth and nearly ALWAYS clean the sink with Comet before washing dishes.
LollyChops: Who is your favorite celebrity chef?
Michele: Paula Deen for home cooking, and Guy Fieri for his show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. My dad and I thought a great vacation would be to make a trail of diners and work our way through them.
LollyChops: I could not agree more! That DOES sound like fun!
LollyChops: If a recipe calls for a clove of garlic – how much do you really use?
Michele: Well, in the past, "more is more." Now, though, in my middle-forties, horror of horrors, my cast iron tummy of my youth has rusted away a bit, and too much garlic really hurts me for hours! I've never experienced that before the last year.
LollyChops: If a recipe calls for vanilla – do you let the vanilla spill over the measuring spoon a little or a lot (or do you just double it like I do)?
Michele: Let it spill!
LollyChops: What is your all-time favorite comfort food?
Michele: Fried Chicken, thighs only please!
LollyChops: What's your favorite color combination? Do you find yourself gravitating toward it over and over?
Michele: I really like pottery colors - red, blue, green, yellow. My personal favorite, though, is always pink.
LollyChops: How do you like your coffee..heck.. do you even drink coffee?
Michele: I like to smell coffee brewing. I like to eat coffee ice cream. My drink of choice, though, is a cold, bubbly Diet Coke!
LollyChops: How do you open a stuck jar lid? Banging, knife, spouse, fancy pry bar jar device...? OR are you a Miss I never have a problem because I have Abs of Steel (I just use my abs to open jars).
Michele: Generally, I just hand it to my husband. My hands aren't very strong. I also use one of those round, rubber helpers.
LollyChops: Favorite flour..and umm.. favorite flower too.
Michele: I just use Pillsbury. However, my favorite flowers are daisies.
LollyChops: How do you take your pepper? Milled or already ground?
Michele: Either, just give me some.
LollyChops: Butter or I can't believe they call it butter?
Michele: I do like ICBIB because it's already soft, and if I leave butter out, even in a little covered butter dish, we never use it fast enough.
LollyChops: You and RonChops should hang out sometime. He likes that stuff too!
LollyChops: Clean as you cook or Hurricane Michele with FEMA disaster recovery?
Michele: Hurricane Michele!
LollyChops: Apron, hand towels, legs or nearest child or pet?
Michele: Hand towels.
Now on to the recipe!
Auntie Lynda’s Comfort Chicken Casserole
Casserole:
* One large chicken OR 6 chicken breasts cooked and chopped or shredded into small pieces
* 4 cups chicken broth
* 2 large cans of Cream of _____ (your choice)
* 5 cups Minute Rice (uncooked)
* 2 containers of 16-ounce sour cream
* 2 cups shredded, sharp cheddar cheese
* Salt, pepper, garlic to taste (go heavy - big recipe)
Topping:
* 4 sleeves of Ritz crackers, crushed. (Crush them inside a big baggy for convenience.)
* 3 sticks of butter
Instructions:
Mix together well ingredients for casserole and divide into 9 x 13 casserole dishes.
In a saucepan, melt butter on low heat. Turn off heat. Add crushed Ritz crackers and stir until evenly covered. Spread as topping over the casseroles.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes until hot all the way through and bubbly.
Get started by putting out all your ingredients to make sure you have everything. Your chicken can be whole, breasts, boiled, baked, rotisserie, just make sure you have enough. I like to bake six large chicken breasts in advance of preparation. I just put them in a couple of baking dishes, season them, add a little water to keep them moist, and then cover with foil and poke holes in the foil to let the steam out. Bake the chicken breasts for about an hour at 350 degrees.
Get the chicken diced or shred. I use the food processor to make it easy.
In a very large bowl, mix together chicken, broth, soups, rice, sour cream, and cheese. Season well.
I don't dare show you what that looks like without the shredded cheese on top as in this picture. All the white, all together, doesn't look that great.
Mix all together very thoroughly, and the divide among your baking pans. I meant to write down how many cups this mix makes. I believe it is 16 cups! I have 6 cups in each 9 x 11 baking dish and 4 cups in the 8 x 8 dish.
Now to make the topping. Melt 3 sticks of butter on low in a large saucepan and then turn heat off. Crush the four sleeves of Ritz crackers. My husband is strong. He holds the ends of the bags in both hands and squeezes (be careful not to pop the bag!), and just pulverizes the crackers. I have to squish a lot inside the bag or put in a baggy to get the job done. Anyway, when you're done, pour the crumbs into the butter and mix well. Top your casseroles evenly with the Ritz crumb mixture. This topping is soooooo tasty! This amount covers the two 9 x 11 pans with a nice, thick layer, the way I like it. Not so much was left for the third, pan, so I could have made another sleeve of topping, but I just crushed some crackers over it and then added some cheese on top to make a more dry topping.
I made up one casserole in a throwaway pan and gave it to a family from church. If you're not having a lot of company over to eat this, don't tempt your self with keeping it all at home. It's just so much! It does freeze really nice as well.
Bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. It's such a thick casserole, you just want to be sure it is hot all the way through in the middle and a bit bubbly on top. If you use a throwaway baking dish, be sure to have a cookie sheet underneath for safety. Those aluminum pans are wobbly, and you'll hurt yourself trying to get the thing out of the oven.
Here it is all baked! In the picture, it looks the same as when cold, but it's nice and hot and melty and yummy. Serve with a green salad to round out the meal and maybe some nice hot crusty bread.
I finished it all off with the Farm Chicks - http://thefarmchicks.typepad.com/farmchicks/2009/02/dark-chocolate-butter-cake.html - Dark Chocolate Butter Cake. OMG! Very, very good. Check it out at their site. It doesn't even need frosting!
Thank you for sharing my FAVORITE casserole today. One of my best friends, Lynda, from Memphis, Tennessee, brought this recipe to me years ago, and we have been serving it ever since.
Thanks so much Michele!!!! Don't forget to get the recipe card for today's post!
Auntie Lynda's Comfort Chicken Casserole
If you would like to be a guest here, just drop me a line via email!
Super Sunday HUGS!
