'explosive' chicken casserole.

for the first time in a few weeks, i tried a new recipe for dinner wednesday night. it was sent to me by a friend who i hadn't heard from in a while. she was a high school student in the youth group i volunteered with for a few years in college. (and if i can be totally honest she was one of my absolute favorites) thanks to facebook, we have kept in touch in the stalker-ish kind of way that only facebook allows, she read my blog and sent me a new, easy, and interesting recipe to try out.

i was intrigued by the concept of the adjective 'exploding' being used to describe any sort of edible meal, so this recipe gets double bonus points for coming with a great back-story that had me doubled-over in my cubicle at work laughing for a solid 5 minutes. and then i couldnt stop laughing. every time i almost calmed myself down, i just lost it and cracked up again. so of course i knew i had to share it.

'Explosive' Chicken Casserole

- 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers
- 1 can cream of chicken soup (or cream of mushroom)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 4 to 6 boneless chicken breasts, cooked
- 4 oz melted butter

*Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1. Crumble one sleeve of Ritz crackers in bottom of a casserole dish. Drizzle with half of the melted butter.
2. Mix soup, sour cream, broth, & chicken.
3. Pour over crackers.
4. Crumble remaining sleeve of crackers over chicken mixture. Drizzle with remaining butter.
5. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot & bubbly.

*serves 6 (great reheated!)
*crumble crackers inside of sleeve
*chicken is cooked when metal fork comes out clean, but may be placed into casserole before so, as long as it is NOT pink.

"Here's why I've called it the 'explosive' chicken casserole. My BFF was teaching me how to cook and so I wanted to make a recipe that we didn't make together that would be amazing. So, I got this one off of a friend and got down to business. I made it completely without her help and put it in the oven. Meanwhile, we were getting ready for a business holiday party. Well, it was smelling fantastic and so i snuck a peek inside about ten minutes before it was to come out. Not even two minutes later we hear this odd crushing sound. I looked at my roommate and I looked at my bestie, and we all then looked at the oven. Here, I used a faulty glass dish that had been recalled that I did not know about and my wonderful dinner had exploded inside the oven. I cried, we ate cocoa puffs and I spent five hours cleaning broken glass and chicken casserole remains from the oven (after the party of course). Ha, I went out and bought a nonglass bakeware dish, just to be safe... "

this stuff was delicious. after his first bite, Mark declared that he was definitely getting seconds. the only deviations i made from the recipe were that i cut my chicken into cubes, and i dont think i baked it long enough. it was hot, but it was not bubbly when i took it out. (but at least it didnt explode... whew!)  if and when i try this recipe again, i will probably add more chicken, make sure i have more time to let it get good and bubbly, and maybe throw in some broccoli instead of serving it on the side.

oh, and this recipe even came with an extra bonus of a good idea of something to do with the leftover chicken stock:
Also, if you have extra chicken broth, you can make a really scrumptious tortellini & spinach soup for later that week. (Boil the broth, add the tortellini until cooked, take off of stove and throw in a handful of raw spinach; stir and enjoy!)
 
so i tried it for dinner last night. and it was good too! Mark was impressed that i made soup by doing more actual cooking than just opening a can of Progresso.

we have leftovers from both meals, which should make for some easy and tasty meals this weekend, which should hopefully mean we can make some progress on our numerous projects!

TGIF, ammirite? hope you all have a wonderful weekend!