Category: Poultry

Dale’s Cousin’s Chicken and Olive Casserole

After the memorial service for Dale’s mother, the family gathered at the house to visit, exchange news and memories and console one another. Neighbors and family members brought food to share.

One of Dale’s cousins appeared with a hot dish that Dale liked so much, he begged the recipe. It was actually a recipe from his cousin’s mother-in-law, so the recipe really should be called “Dale’s Cousin’s Mother-in-law’s Chicken and Olive Casserole” but that makes for a name too long to fit on a recipe card plus a lot of apostrophes.

Recently Dale brought it to a church potluck, where it was a big hit. I loved it too and Dale was kind enough to share the recipe. For once, that collection of all knowledge we call the Internet lacked a recipe like this. Until now, that is.

If you enjoy chicken and noodles and a mild but rich and flavorful casserole, this is a dish you really need to try.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter
1 large onion
1/2 green bell pepper
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cups sour cream
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups cooked turkey or chicken
1 cup sliced ripe olives
1 cup pecans
2 cups chicken broth
Water
1 package noodles (12 to 16 oz.)
French fried onions (optional)

PROCEDURE:

First, prepare your ingredients and put a large pot of water mixed with about two cups of chicken broth on the burner to heat. Grease a three quart casserole. Preheat the oven to 300º.

Peel and chop the onion medium fine. Wash and chop half a medium green bell pepper to about a quarter inch dice. Clean and chop the mushrooms to the same size. Cut the cooked turkey or chicken into bite-sized pieces and slice the olives. Grate the Parmesan cheese and coarsely chop the pecans.

When the water and broth are boiling, add the noodles and cook them just to al dente.

While the noodles are cooking melt the butter in a large skillet and cook the onion over moderate heat until it is soft but not brown. Add the green pepper and mushrooms and cook them for a minute or two. Reduce the heat and stir in the cream of mushroom soup, sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Mix the turkey or chicken into the sauce and remove the skillet from the heat.

Drain the noodles and return them to the pot. Add the sauce from the skillet along with the olives and pecans and mix well. Put the mixture into the casserole, cover and bake for an hour.

NOTES: Dale says that you can use leftover turkey or chicken if you have some in your freezer.

The original recipe called for butter or oleo. Neither Dale nor I think oleo is a good idea. Go with the good stuff.

Dale likes to use those tasty “Amish” noodles, which are a little thicker than the conventional packaged noodles, but either kind will work.

He also stirred in a cup of crushed French fried onions and sprinkled a few on top before baking the casserole.

Mike’s Little Chickens

The story begins many years ago when my mother called her youngest daughter to ask a favor. Pam and her husband, Mike, lived a few miles north of Chicago where Mike was a chemist for a major corporation.

“Pammy, could you come up to Hayward for a few days to help me clean out Dad’s things?” asked my mother. My father had died the previous fall and my mother had moved into an apartment in Hayward for the winter. When spring arrived, she was ready to move back into the house in the country with its birds, bears and flowers.

It was May, and school was still in session, so Mike could oversee Carolyn and Ben as a single parent for a few days with after-school help from the neighbors. Carolyn was ten and Ben, eight years old.

When Saturday arrived, Mike asked Ben and Carolyn what they wanted for supper. He assumed that they would want to go out for hamburgers or pizzas after two days of Dad’s cooking. He was about to be surprised.

“I want one of those little chickens,” said Ben. Carolyn said that she wanted one too. The problem was that Mike did not know what they were talking about.

“You want to go to the KFC. Good” said Mike.

“No! We want little chickens to eat here,” said Ben.

“They were good,” added Carolyn.

After a game of twenty questions, Mike finally understood that they were talking about Cornish game hens which Pam had cooked a few times. So father, daughter and son drove to the supermarket and bought three Cornish game hens and the ingredients Mike dredged from his memory of how he roasted them when it was his turn to cook for his housemates when he was in graduate school.

As you might expect from a young man who had to cook and do the dishes, he had created a simple recipe that could be made in one pan. He roasted four birds, one for each guy, and the dish became a regular on the house menu when it was Mike’s turn to cook.

Incidentally, the kids loved “Dad’s little chickens” and Pam still thinks the story is hilarious.

I have cut Mike’s recipe in half, but it still serves four. Of course, you can easily increase the number of birds and adjust the amount of rice and broth you need to accommodate more diners. You will need more baking pans, because you should not crowd the hens.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cornish game hens
1 1/2 cups white rice
3 T butter, divided
2 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 375º. Grease or spray an eight by twelve inch glass baking pan. Rinse the rice and put it in the pan. Stir in the broth and a dash or two of black pepper. Dot with a tablespoon of butter.

Rub the game hens with salt and pepper inside and out and put a half tablespoon of butter into each body cavity. Set the birds on the rice, breast side up, and put them on the the center shelf for thirty minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cover it with aluminum foil. Return it to the oven and bake for another thirty-five minutes.

Melt a tablespoon of butter. Remove the foil and baste the hens with the butter. Put the pan back in the oven and continue baking for another half hour or until the hens are done. An instant-read thermometer should register 165º in the thickest part of the thigh.

Serve with bread and salad.

NOTES: Ben and Carolyn were right. Cornish game hens are little chickens. They were first produced in the 1950‘s by Alphonsine “Te” and Jacques Makowsky at their poultry farm in Connecticut. Alphonsine came up with the idea of crossing small Cornish game cocks with larger chickens. The most successful cross was with a Malayan fighting cock and a white Plymouth rock hen.

The first “Rock Cornish Hens” were meant to be a substitute for the Guinea hens the Makowsky farm had been supplying restaurants after all the birds had been killed in a fire, but the Cornish game hens were an instant success in their own right and are prized today for their succulent white meat.

Jerri especially likes the crispy rice on the edges of the pan.