Variations on a recipe

 

Once school starts, everyone seems busier, time is somehow compressed. Maybe it’s something subliminal, like the days are getting shorter or an impending sense that the holidays, busiest time of the year, are not far off. Maybe it’s just that the lazy days of summer are over, and there’s less time for everything—including fixing supper.

I like to keep a rotisserie chicken or two on hand for just such evenings when we’re rushed. Jordan has convinced me that they are easier to bone if you do it right away when you get home from the store, when the chicken is still warm. Not only is it easier to bone, but it takes up a lot less room in the freezer. You can pull it out, cut into chunks, have a casserole in the oven in no time aat all. One problem is that recipes usually call for three or four cups chicken, and I find we don’t always get that much off one bird.

The other night with Jordan out of town I used a rotisserie chicken to fix a simple chicken casserole Christian and Jacob. I thought was delicious.

Chicken Casserole

4 cups chopped, cooked chicken

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup sour cream

½ sleeve Ritz crackers

½ stick butter, melted

Lightly spray a casserole dish. Distribute chicken evenly in the dish. Mix sour cream and mushroom soup and pour over chicken. Crush the Ritz crackers—I love the taste of Ritz and they crumble so much more easily than saltines. Just put them in a baggie and whack at them a bit with your rolling pin. You do have a rolling pin, don’t you? Never hurts to ask in this day of baking mixes.

Spread crumbs evenly over casserole and drizzle with butter. Bake at 350 for 20 or 30 minutes.

I have a lazy habit of eating cold leftovers for lunch—lazy because I don’t want to stop what I’m doing and fix something. But I must admit this wasn’t as good the next day. Probably I should have reheated it.

Since I fixed that, I’ve come across variations. Here’s another version:

Diced chicken

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of celery soup

Pepperidge Farm stuffing

1 c. butter

1-1/2 cups chicken broth

           Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

Yet another, this with the name, “Grandma’s Chicken Casserole.”

3 cups cooked chicken

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

3 cups crushed Ritz crackers

Bake at 350.

And, finally, one with more variation, called “No Peek Chicken”

1 box Uncle Ben’s Long Grain Wild Rice (original recipe—good luck if you can find that--all I find is the instant version)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can water

Chicken breast or tenders.

Now here’s a bit of speculation on my part. The recipe calls for raw chicken and specifies cooking it for two and a half hours at 350, tightly covered with foil. Take the name seriously, and do NOT peek. If you use rotisserie chicken, you could cut the time down and take advantage of the “instant” feature of the rice. I haven’t tried it, so all I can advise is playing with the time. Maybe an hour?

And the next time someone belittles the 1950s trick of cooking with canned soup just smile and walk away. You know better!

 

 

 

Quick and easy are my go-to ideas this summer

Maybe it’s the heat, but this summer I’m less interested in semi-elaborate recipes and more inclined to go with quick and easy. One night I fed two teen-age boys, so I had to take into account what they will eat and what not. (My grandson, a picky eater who’s getting better, is always suspicious of my cooking, and his mom keeps telling me not to fancy things up for him.) So here’s what may be the simplest chicken casserole ever. I have no idea where I got the recipe.

Grandma’s chicken casserole

3 cups cooked chicken, cubed

1 can cream of mushroom soup

½ half cup mayonnaise

2 cups grated cheddar (if I have said it before, let me repeat: grate your own cheese; the pre-grated in the stores has filler in it, like ground up wood or something to keep it from clumping; I have this on the word of the cheese monger at Central Market).

3 cups finely crushed Ritz crackers

            Layer in a greased baking dish and bake 20-30 minutes at 350^o

A couple of lessons learned: the recipe called for two cans soup, but I misread (who, me?) and only had one. It was fine the night I served it, but the leftovers were a bit dry. So I suggest the compromise of a half cup of mayonnaise. You can try the two cans of soup, but your casserole may get soggy.

I baked this in my toaster oven in a high-sided round casserole dish, which was a mistake. Somehow that dish focused too much heat on the surface of the casserole, and some of the topping burned. I advise a low, rectangular baking dish—the largest one that will it in your toaster oven, if that is what you, like me, are restricted to using. And maybe lower the temperature to 325 and bake a bit longer.

Which reminds me: one of the best gifts anyone ever gave me is a jelly-roll style pan—like a cookie sheet but with a lip—that fits exactly in my toaster oven. I use it all the time.

Quick and easy appetizer spread

4 oz. crumbled feta

2 Tbsp. Greek yogurt

Honey

In small food processor, blend feta and yogurt until smooth and creamy. (You can experiment with the amount of yogurt—start small and increase if you need to). Chill. When ready to serve, drizzle lightly with honey.

Herb sauce for everything and anything

            Sometimes I buy a fresh green herb—often parsley or cilantro—for a specific recipe that calls for, say, 2 Tbsp. finely chopped. Then the rest of the herb (and they’re not cheap) sits in the vegetable crisper until it gets old and I throw it out. Here’s a better idea:

1/2 cup mixed herbs

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt (I always use Kosher)

1 large garlic clove, grated with microplane

1 small shallot, finely chopped

Use on fish, steaks, vegetables, whatever strikes your fancy. May be doubled easily. Will keep a week in the fridge.

Happy cooking and stay cool!