After I gifted the cookbook to my Mom we spent a fair amount of time flipping through the pages and discussing the recipes my Grandmother had collected and the memories that she had associated with them.
When we came to this recipe she sighed fondly and told me that everybody had a broccoli and cheese casserole, that it was a staple of the time. It makes sense to me! It's super easy to make, you get some good veggies and lots of cheese (so you can pretend it's healthy!).
I've made this dish a few times since I first made it for the cookbook. It's consistently stayed easy to make and delicious. Serve it with rice or over noodles if you're daring.
The recipe is pretty specific about the cheese to use, but I've varied it based on what I have lying around my house and it's always tasted great. The first time I made itI followed the recipe and used shredded cheddar, the next times I've used shredded Parmesan cheese. Both hits!
As a true sign of the times, when my Grandmother first started making this recipe there was no such thing as boneless, skinless chicken breasts that you could just buy from the store! So her recipe calls for skinning and deboning the chicken. Ignore that step and buy some boneless skinless chicken breasts and you're good to go. I left it in because I think the little throw backs to how times have evolved are fun and fascinating.
On to the good stuff:
First, cook your chicken. However makes you happy. I think for this it's easiest to just cook it on a skillet, but if you want to go be adventurous with it, by all means! After it's done cooking cut it up into bite sized pieces.
Then cook your broccoli according to the package instructions. The recipe calls for frozen spears. I don't know if I'm just unlucky, but I haven't managed to find frozen spears in the grocery store. I generally have used frozen broccoli florets and be a happy camper. Use two packages. The packages I buy take about 6 minutes to cook 2 at a time. I'd do this while the chicken was cooking.
I'd go ahead and preheat your oven here to 350 degrees. None of the other steps take much time.
Then make your sauce: It's just a mixture of mayo, cream of chicken soup, curry powder, and lemon juice. There seems to have been a running trend during this time period for using cream of chicken soup. We used a TON of that soup when we made this cook book. It's yummy though, so not really complaining!
Then all that's left to do is assemble and bake! Grease a 9x13 baking sheet and place the cooked broccoli in the bottom. Top it with the chicken. Drain the water chestnuts and place them on top, I really like water chestnuts. I'm not sure what they actually add to the dinner, but it's a fun crunch. Cover them both with soup! Then go to town with the breadcrumbs. The recipe doesn't call for a specific amount of breadcrumbs so I took that as an invitation to create a whole layer of breadcrumbs. I'm not angry about it, it provides a nice bit of a crunch! Top with 4 oz. of your chosen cheese.
That's it, after that just bake it for 30 minutes. Quick and easy dinner!
CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI CASSEROLE SERVES: 6 - 8 | PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES | COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES
4 chicken breasts or 1 fryer
2 packages (10 oz.) of Broccoli spears
2 cans (10 ½ oz.) cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
¼ tsp. curry powder
8 oz. can sliced water chestnuts
4 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Buttered breadcrumbs
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cook Chicken. Skin, bone, and cut into bite-sized pieces
Cook broccoli according to package directions.
Create the sauce by mixing the cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powers.
Grease your casserole dish
Assemble the dish by placing broccoli in the bottom. Place the chicken on top. Place drained water chestnuts on top of chicken. Cover with the soup mixture. Top with breadcrumbs and grated cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes.