Rotel Chicken Casserole

A few weeks ago, my son, Colton asked if we could pick up supper from a restaurant in town. That sounded like a great idea because I hadn’t started supper, so we did. Well the running joke in our house is everyone jumps at the chance to do the dishes when we get take out because most of the clean up involves a few plates in the dishwasher. As we finished up our meal, I told Colton to take care of the clean-up and his response was “but I decided what we were having, so basically I made supper”. I responded with “I don’t think you can really call that making supper”. Colton with his quick wit said “but I decided what we were having and that’s the hardest part of making supper” and I couldn’t argue. That is the very thing I say to my family about cooking meals for them. And in my opinion one of the hardest parts of cooking meal is the planning.

When I don’t have my meals planned for the week, sometimes I grab a cookbook or search Pinterest for inspiration. But when I’m feeling really creative, I look through my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. This recipe is the result of my looking for ingredients to spark an idea for a dish.

My intention was to do a cheese sauce, potatoes, carrots, sausage, and chicken. But the direction changed when my daughter came for a visit and said she was craving mexican flavors, so I eliminated the carrots and added Rotel tomatoes to the cheese sauce. It’s a good dish, but next time I want to try rice instead of potatoes.

Over all, it’s a pretty easy recipe and if you try my hacks such as using rotisserie chicken then it makes it even easier.

My original thought was to do a cheesy potatoes with chicken and sausage, but my daughter wanted a tex mex flavor. Out comes the rotel to satisfy that craving.

Layer the ingredients and then repeat. Then bake until bubbling hot. Now it’s time to eat.

Rotel Chicken Casserole

• Time: prep - 30 minutes, cook - 30 minutes
• Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients

• 3 Chicken breast
• water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 4 oz cooked sausage, crumbled
• 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 can Original Rotel tomatoes
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Place chicken breasts in pot covered with salted water.
2. Bring to boil and cook 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked thoroughly. Shred chicken, set aside
3. In large skillet, fry potatoes in vegetable oil until crispy and brown.
4. Drain potatoes well and set aside.
5.Cook onion with sausage until done.
5. In small pan, make roux with melted butter and flour. Add chicken broth, slowly until smooth.
6. Add softened cream cheese and mix thoroughly. Add cheddar cheese, melt and stir until smooth.
7. Add Rotel to cheese sauce.
8. In a baking dish, layer as following.
– 1/2 fried potatoes – 1/2 chicken – 1/2 cooked sausage – 1/2 cheese sauce
9. Repeat layers
10. In preheated 350 degree oven, bake 20 minutes.
. In a baking dish, layer 1/2 potatoes

Hack This Recipe

1. Substitute frozen hashbrowns for potatoes
2. Substitute Velveeta for cream cheese and cheddar cheese.
3. Substitute 2 cups rotisserie chicken or 2 cans of chopped chicken

The recipe was good and I plan to make again. Next time I plan to substitute the fried potatoes with 1 cup of rice. If you try it be sure and let me know your thoughts.

Until next time,