Post Your Favorite Casserole Recipes

[digitS']

Can you imagine when our ancestors went from just using an open fire with some hot rocks to someone taking some clay and building an oven?!

I'm trying to learn to make better use of my crock pots. Casseroles, I'm more confident with those. How about if we help @Nyboy along that avenue. He probably has some family favorites but needs to know where to start .

Casseroles don't take too long and they reheat well. Do you have favorites?

Steve

 

[lcertuche]

Steve sorry this is so late in coming I got busy and forgot about this post. I would love for some more people to offer recipes too. I have some more but I'll wait and see if someone else decides to post them first.

Amy Dacyczyn’s Complete Tightwad Gazette is a good starting point for making casseroles.

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup “goodie”
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, etc.
Second ingredient: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-boiled eggs, etc.
Starchy ingredient: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice, etc.
Binder: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup, etc.
“Goodie”: pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts, etc.
Topping: cheese, bread crumbs, etc.

I like to make Mexican type casseroles so here are my family favorite. It is a great dish to take to a potluck dinner. I never have even a bite left and usually by time I go down the line it's already gone. I have to make two because my family complains that they didn't get any at church so we have one for supper. In fact if we aren't going to a dinner I do make two and put one in the freezer. Just thaw overnight in the freezer and bake. You will probably have too bake it at least an hour or two if it's still froze when you put it in the freezer.

Mexican Chicken

1 chicken, boiled and meat removed
1 can rotel
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pound of cubed velveeta
1 bag of crushed tortilla chips

Stir together boned chicken, rotel, soups, cheese, half the crushed chips.
Pour mixture into a large greased casserole pan.
Sprinkle the rest of the crushed chips over the rest and bake in a 350 degree oven until lightly brown and bubbling.

This is the recipe the way it is wrote but of course I rarely follow recipes because I use what i have on hand.

I never buy canned soups because of the price, sodium, etc. I make a cheap white sauce from cornstarch and add my own flavorings. My canned chicken broth thickened with cornstarch is so much better.

The chicken can be any kind. My favorite is leftover or my home canned chicken. Chicken quarters are cheap and work great. Whatever will save you money.

Rotel is great but any brand of tomatoes with chilis work. I also will use my canned tomatoes and throw in some jalapenos or rellenos. Even a half a jar of picante that's in the fridge.

Shepherd Pie

Pre-cooked meat
can of green beans
can of peas
can of carrots
can of corn
mashed potatoes (enough to cover the top)
onions
any other leftover you want to use up

In a greased casserole layer all the veggies.
Top with meat, can be hamburger, leftover turkey, leftover roast, etc.
Final layer is mashed potatoes.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about and hour. Cover so potatoes don't dry out. Can remove the cover/foil last 15 minutes.

 

[digitS']

I'm sure the other 2 are tasty and well worth trying. That first one is right up my alley! Thank You

Proportions and classes of foods - yes! Then, a person can both follow a recipe and act creatively with what is available. Nearly every recipe should start with these first 3 instructions:

• Make a list
• Go to store
• Buy

When I pick up a recipe, it isn't because I have decided that shopping is what I was interested in.

Steve

 

[journey11]

Steve sorry this is so late in coming I got busy and forgot about this post. I would love for some more people to offer recipes too. I have some more but I'll wait and see if someone else decides to post them first.

Amy Dacyczyn’s Complete Tightwad Gazette is a good starting point for making casseroles.

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup “goodie”
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, etc.
Second ingredient: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-boiled eggs, etc.
Starchy ingredient: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice, etc.
Binder: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup, etc.
“Goodie”: pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts, etc.
Topping: cheese, bread crumbs, etc.

I like to make Mexican type casseroles so here are my family favorite. It is a great dish to take to a potluck dinner. I never have even a bite left and usually by time I go down the line it's already gone. I have to make two because my family complains that they didn't get any at church so we have one for supper. In fact if we aren't going to a dinner I do make two and put one in the freezer. Just thaw overnight in the freezer and bake. You will probably have too bake it at least an hour or two if it's still froze when you put it in the freezer.

Mexican Chicken

1 chicken, boiled and meat removed
1 can rotel
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pound of cubed velveeta
1 bag of crushed tortilla chips

Stir together boned chicken, rotel, soups, cheese, half the crushed chips.
Pour mixture into a large greased casserole pan.
Sprinkle the rest of the crushed chips over the rest and bake in a 350 degree oven until lightly brown and bubbling.

This is the recipe the way it is wrote but of course I rarely follow recipes because I use what i have on hand.

I never buy canned soups because of the price, sodium, etc. I make a cheap white sauce from cornstarch and add my own flavorings. My canned chicken broth thickened with cornstarch is so much better.

The chicken can be any kind. My favorite is leftover or my home canned chicken. Chicken quarters are cheap and work great. Whatever will save you money.

Rotel is great but any brand of tomatoes with chilis work. I also will use my canned tomatoes and throw in some jalapenos or rellenos. Even a half a jar of picante that's in the fridge.

Shepherd Pie

Pre-cooked meat
can of green beans
can of peas
can of carrots
can of corn
mashed potatoes (enough to cover the top)
onions
any other leftover you want to use up

In a greased casserole layer all the veggies.
Top with meat, can be hamburger, leftover turkey, leftover roast, etc.
Final layer is mashed potatoes.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about and hour. Cover so potatoes don't dry out. Can remove the cover/foil last 15 minutes.

That's very similar to what we were told in cooking class in high school, that formula. I don't remember what casserole I invented, but it must not have been very good. I came out of that class with a C. The only C I ever got in school. I think that teacher just didn't like me, because I grew up to be an excellent cook! Of course, it may have been because I was too busy talking to my best friend to heed her instructions. Little did she know! The best cooks don't have to follow directions. They cook from the heart!

I've got a summer squash casserole that is a family favorite. https://www.theeasygarden.com/threa...-something-from-the-garden.17142/#post-220113

My BIL is planning to build an earth oven. I'll post pics if he does. I expect he will follow through. He built a dōjō once...

 

[aftermidnight]

My Gran's Shepard's pie;

Ground up left over roast beef,
I/2 a finely chopped onion,
mix in the left over beef gravy,
Top with left over mashed potatoes or hash browns if you haven't got left overs,
Pop in a 350º oven for 1 hr.


Annette

 

[aftermidnight]

My too lazy to go to the store macaroni casserole, used what I had in the house. It was raining, I don't drive and the heck if I was going to walk. (My whole family and their friends make this now.)

Pasta, you choose the shape, cook till just about al dente, toss in dutch oven
Dice and fry up some bacon, add to casserole, adding a tad of the bacon fat as well
Grate some cheddar, cheese, I like a fair bit, stir in
Top the whole thing with tomato juice, leave enough tomato juice to add to the leftovers for the next day, (the pasta soaks up all the juice so I always leave a bit in the can, add when heating up the left overs in the microwave)
Put the lid on and pop in a 350º oven for 1 hour

Annette

 

[digitS']

Gardens are not only seasonal, they are limited. Sure, with food preservation, the list of garden ingredients lengthens. What happens if you are not really into preserving and, instead, the growing of fresh ingredients occupies your time and brings pleasure?

Freezing entire meals makes some sense to me. Instead of DW and I eating everything out of the oven, pot or stir-fry pan, we can make extra and freeze those servings. Faced with abundance, we have resisted doing that . Chickens require almost the same diet as we do and for many years it was possible to just share.

What I discovered as a cooking gardener (more that than a gardening cook ) was that I was using the same ingredients in different proportions to make 3 different prepared foods - stir-fry, soup and casseroles. More vegetables in stir-fries, more broth in soups, more starches in casseroles -- they were sufficiently different so as not to be boring.

I have little doubt that I am a C grade cook. The freshness of my ingredients make up well for many of the deficits .

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

Rye country store will make casseroles in your own pan if you drop it off ahead of time.

 

[digitS']

Ah, come on!!!

After all these simple (& complex, obviously delicious) ideas for making a casserole, that's the best you can come up with, @Nyboy ?

My ingredient ... is ... the pan ...

digitS'

 

[so lucky]

I wish I could find a source for casseroles made with natural ingredients. I know how to make a good "white sauce" that works for thickening, but what would you do to make a substitute for, for instance, canned cream of chicken soup? Without using packaged ingredients? Just use a concentrated chicken broth for the liquid in white sauce?