This recipe will fills my Pyrex 4.8 quart (15x10x2) casserole baking dish perfectly. And it is just great for
taking to a pot luck or covered dish dinner. It is another of my mother’s recipes from the 1960’s. I am sure she
found it on a label on a soup can or mayonnaise jar, but it has been a real winner in our family for almost 50
years. Over time I have modified the recipe,
adding more celery and hard boiled eggs.
Many of the recipes for this dish on the
Internet include nuts, pimento/olive, lemon juice
or grated cheese. Those all seem like fine
additions to try, but this recipe is the real deal
from many years ago.
The kids really like this one and we never take home any leftovers if we take this dish to a pot luck dinner.
It’s good in either hot or cold weather and is a Thanksgiving time staple for us.
Main Ingredients:
6 boneless chicken breast halves, boiled, cooled and cubed
¼ to ½ cup reserved broth from the cooking of the chicken
1 package of Uncle Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice,
Original Recipe, cooked (see photo)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
6-8 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped (see tip on how to perfectly hard boil eggs)
2 cans of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup
½ cup Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise – not a “lite” variety
½ teaspoon salt – omit if desired
Topping:
1 Large can La Choy Chow Mein Noodles - Optional
Directions:
Combine all main ingredients except for the topping and put it in an un-greased casserole
baking dish in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. The edges of the dish should
bubble, plus there should be a few bubbles towards the center of the dish. Add the topping at the
30 minute mark for the last 10 minutes or so, just enough to brown the topping without burning.
Tips:
When boiling the chicken, time it so that the meat is just done or slightly underdone. The
chicken will finish cooking in the oven for the 40 minutes and you do not want to risk overcooking
white meat and make it dry and tough. Use plain water for the broth in case you forget (like I do
sometimes) and pour it all down the drain when the boiling is done.
You may have to adjust the ¼ to ½ cup reserved broth or water to get the right moisture into
the mixture. Too little, and the casserole does not cook well and comes out dry. Too much, and
the finished product is like soup. The moisture you will need varies depending on how “wet” your
cooked rice is, or how well done the boiled chicken is, how cooked the eggs are or even how
large or fresh or dried out your onion is. You can just aim for a pre-cooked mixture that is
certainly not soupy but is not so dry that it is so hard to combine with a wooden spoon.
With the package of rice I find that I have to keep the heat up nearly on high and reduce the
water to just a little less than the package says. Otherwise the rice will end up too “wet” and
make the finished dish too soupy.
You can discard half of the yolks from the hard boiled eggs to be cholesterol-friendly and the
dish will still taste great. See this tip for perfect hard boiled eggs.
There is plenty of salt in these ingredients, and so you can omit the extra and just salt to
taste at the table if you like.
This is comfort food, so don’t use “lite” mayonnaise or “salad dressing” in the place of the full strength
mayo. I’ve tried it, and it just doesn’t taste right.
Hot Chicken Salad