CHICKEN AND STUFFING CASSEROLE

                                

                                   CHICKEN AND STUFFING CASSEROLE

     Well, I’m still alive, just terribly busy at my wonderful life!  Working on a wedding, high school transcripts and college applications, my parent’s building project adjacent to my house, and hosting college age friends of my son on any given day of the week (he drops in).  I do still cook, however, but the whole taking-the- pictures-and-getting-it-in-the-blog has taken a back seat of late.

     Anyway, I’ve been making this casserole since I was first married and barely knew how to make boxed stuffing.  So ya know it’s gotta be easy.  There’s only one challenging thing to it:  making a white sauce.  This is not hard if you do it just like I learned from my Betty Crocker Cookbook.  Melt the butter on med/low heat, add flour just one tablespoon at a time – in fact, not all at once, but shaking a little bit out at a time, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Immediately after, add the milk just a little at a time, constantly stirring, stirring, stirring, until the whole amount is added, then stirring more to get the flour out of the whisk and blended in with everything else.  Be patient, that’s the key.  Then, keep stirring on med/low until it is thickened. 

     Now that I’ve got the nit-picky details out of the way, let’s begin.  And remember, this really is an easy recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2-3 chicken breasts or 6 frozen chicken tenderloins
• 3 c. water
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• dash pepper
• 1 box Stove Top Stuffing (chicken flavor)

Directions:

1. Boil chicken in water and save 1 cup of the broth. 
2. Cut chicken into small pieces. (You can always use canned chicken if you’re short on time, and substitute one cup of water mixed with chicken bullion for the broth.)
3. Melt butter in pan on top of stove on med/low heat, stir in flour a little at a time.
4. Add broth and pepper.
5. Continue to stir over low/med heat, making a white sauce. (About 5-7 min.)
6. Stir in soup and milk.
7. Add chicken pieces to sauce and pour into an 8×8 baking dish, cover with aluminum foil.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil last 15 minutes.

     Like I said, I was pretty wet behind the ears when I began making this scrumptuous comfort-food dinner, so I know you can do it!  My fam loves it. 

     Serves 6