Before I tell you all about this recipe, I just want to say this. This meal is certainly not the healthiest in the world. But I try to balance less healthy with more healthy, otherwise, I feel the whole family will revolt and never eat what I cook again! Ideally, I would like them to all be organic vegetarians. But I also understand they are young and still need to form their own ideas and opinions. Brian of course, its too late for him, so I just do the best I can everyday! That's all about that. Oh and all these pics are taken with the new camera, so lets see how it does!
Now, I'm sure this casserole has a name, but I don't know what it is. We've always just called it the 'chicken stuff'. Since its STILL chilly & rainy here, I thought this would be perfect for dinner. I'm made two versions of this-one with real chicken & one vegetarian (fake chicken).
First, you start with chicken breasts. You can use fresh or frozen, just adjust the cooking time accordingly. I'm using fresh because that's what I bought. These are thin-cut breasts because that is what they had. So throw those into a 9x13 baking dish. In a separate bowl, combine 1- 16 oz. container sour cream (or 1/2 container greek yogurt for mine) with 2- 10 oz. cans cream of (something) soup. (I also only used 1 can of soup for my smaller pan.)
I like cream of celery, I think most people use cream of mushroom. And I believe Brian-when he used to cook-has even used one can of cream of onion with roasted garlic. Pour that mixture over the breasts, making sure they are all covered. Now, sometimes we add frozen broccoli now or sometimes we don't. I have some, so today, its going in. I also sprinkled on a little garlic powder. You can't ever have enough garlic really.
Next you need to make 2 packages of stuffing. I don't use Stove Top anymore because it has hydrogenated oils. Most of the instant stuffings do. I usually use
Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing
or I just read all the ingredient labels until I find one that's ok. I make it in the microwave with a little extra water since its going to be baking for so long-I don't want it to dry out.
Spread the stuffing over the top so that everything is covered.
This is my vegetarian pan.
Cover with foil or the lid & bake @ 350 for about an hour. You want to make sure the chicken is cooked thru (obviously). I cooked it a bit less since they were thin sliced breasts. I usually uncover it with about 10 minutes to go, to kind of crisp the stuffing a little bit around the edges. Brian likes this served over mashed potatoes, but that's just too much for me. I like it as is-it has stuffing-what more do you need?!
For my vegetarian version, I used the
naked chicken cutlets by Quorn. I really love all of their products! This item though is not really for eating on their own, I don't think, but I like to use them in recipes. I made vegetarian buffalo chicken dip with them & it was delicious! I also used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I just like it better now.
I had never made this vegetarian version before. The outcome? Not bad. Not as good as the original, but I expected that. I think I would cut up the cutlets next time, it just seems like a good idea. All in all a good meal and the family was VERY happy to have this again. So I declare it a success!
