Thanksgiving’s coming, y’all! It’s one of my favorite holidays for a number of reasons.
Reason #2: the focus is on food, not on the commercialization of the holiday like my formerly favorite holiday, Christmas. I don’t have to worry about what to buy everybody and going broke. I only have to worry about the food…my favorite worry.
Reason #3: Adam Sandler’s Turkey Song. Besides Amazing Grace, it may just be the best song ever written.
If you’re like us, after Thanksgiving you have leftover turkey at your house for awhile. You go to the fridge, look at it, and wonder what the heck to do with it. In the end, though, you close the fridge and go down to the Krystal’s for some sweet balls. Wait, maybe that’s just me. Then, after a few days/weeks/months/years of this, you throw the turkey in the trash.
No more!
Between now and Thanksgiving, I’ll be posting a series of recipes that will help you turn that turkey into something yummier than blah turkey sandwiches. This is the first. I make it with chicken here, but turkey is just as yummy in it…if you like turkey. You’ll remember that I don’t, which may or may not mean I have communistic tendencies. I also don’t care for apple pie or barbeque, which means I should be named something-o-vich probably.
It is what it is.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
A can of cream of chicken soup, a can of cream of mushroom soup, two boxes of chicken-flavored stuffing (the recipe calls for one, but I’m a two-box kind of stuffing girl), a soup can’s worth of milk, and a whole, cooked chicken pulled off the bone.
Please try to ignore the fact that my pantry looks like a Great Value commercial. Help! I’m buying Great Value stuff, and I can’t control myself! Their best product is this one:
Mine’s all sucked in because I use it to death. Time for a new bottle. I use it for everything: cleaning the bathrooms, kitchen, tea stains off the tea pitcher…everything! I’m thinking of spraying Big Daddy down with it when he comes home from work. Or the next time he goes out and catches an unwelcome visitor and RELEASES IT TO ITS OWN RECOGNIZANCE!
Bitter! Party of one!
I’m waaaaayyy off-task here. Back to the casserole: Oh, you may also want to find your local Diva and ask her to practice her guitar and serenade you Jewel-style while you cook. But that’s optional.
You may remember, from the Chicken and Dumplin’s, that I cook my whole chickens in the Crock Pot. Put the bird in there, cover it with water, and cook it on low for 8-10 hours.
When she’s done, she looks like this:
She’s kind of exposed there on the right, and I’m sorry about that, but she’s got issues. She’s about to be picked apart limb-by-limb.
Once she gets in this position, just pick the meat off the bones and put it into the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan. You could also use one of those yummy roasted chickens (or leftover Tom from Thanksgiving) from the grocery store. So good!
Oh, and save that broth! That’s homemade goodness.
Refrigerate it. Freeze it. Whatever you gotta do. That’ll save you some money and be healthier than that salty, deadly, canned stuff.
Now, in a bowl, mix the two soups:
Fill one of the soup cans with milk:
Pour the milk in with the soups and mix until it looks like this:
Then, pour it over the chicken/turkey:
Next, cook the stuffing according to the package directions:
Then, put it on top of the chicken (turkey)/soup/milk mixture:
At this point, the thing is cooked, but needs to be heated through. Bake her for 30ish minutes at 350 degrees. The best point, however, is that you can cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for later in the week (I LOVE make-ahead food!) or even wrap it up and freeze it.
You’ll just need to thaw it and bake it until it’s warm.
Super yummy! Big Daddy likes it. The Diva likes it. Heck, everybody likes it! Make it today.
Oh, and it goes really well with Mammaw’s Good Green Beans or one of those bagged, Caesar salads and some applesauce. How easy is that?
Here’s the printable recipe card: Chicken-Turkey Casserole
Happy Turkey Day!
AinW
Adventures In Womanland 