Friday, December 30, 2011

Leftovers - in disguise

We had some pretty amazing meals over the holidays and now my refrigerator is bursting with leftovers. What do I do when I have too many leftovers in my refrigerator and I can't seem drum up enough excitement to eat them?  I turn them into something else so they don't look like leftovers anymore.  In this case, I had leftover herbed basmati rice and leftover dry rubbed grilled chicken breasts.  I turned to a chicken casserole recipe that I was passed down to me from my mom.  It's an oldie but goody.

My Mom’s Chicken Casserole
3 cups chopped cooked chicken           
2 cups diced celery                                1 can cream of chicken soup
1 Tablespoon minced onion                4-6 Tablespoons butter
1 cup mayonnaise                                  1 ½ cups crushed cornflakes
1 ½ cups cooked rice                            ½ cup slice almonds
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Saute celery and onion in butter to soften.



 

Combine celery, chicken,


mayonnaise,


rice,

 
lemon juice


and soup.


Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.


Spoon into casserole dish.  (I divided mine into 2 smaller dishes so that I could freeze one for another day.)


Put cornflakes in a ziploc bag.


Crush the cornflakes with a rolling pin or step on them carefully.  My son's size 11 shoes make great cornflake crumbs in a hurry.


Brown cornflakes and almonds in butter and sprinkle over casserole.


Bake 45 minutes at 350.



Once again I forgot to snap a picture of the casserole before we ate - sooner or later I'll get the hang of this food blogging thing.  Anyway - my daughter had 3 servings of chicken casserole - obviously it was a big hit.  The casserole was delicious and it's a great way to use up leftovers.  Your family doesn't even have to know that they're eating leftovers.

Bon Appetit!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recipe. I have the ingredients on hand and will probably use leftover frozen turkey from Thanksgiving.

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  2. Do you put cornflakes on the casserole you are freezing or wait until it is thawed and ready to bake?

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  3. I crush the cornflakes and brown them with the almonds and then I put that mixture in a ziplock bag and freeze it along with the casserole. I never tried freezing it with the topping already on it but my guess is that it would get a little soggy. Hope you guys had a great christmas.

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  4. Thanks. I'm giving it a try today. Also, one member of our family is not so big on celery. Think it'd be OK to do a cup of celery and a cup of onion?

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  5. Hope I'm not too late but yes you can try substituting onion for celery if you like. My mom also used to put a can of water chestnuts in her casserole. You can try that if you want to give it more crunch.

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