It’s kind of an uninspiring title isn’t it? This dish is an adaptation of my college friend Lauren’s mom’s casserole (yes, called Chicken Loaf), which was always a huge favorite when we went home on weekends. I suppose it’s supposed to be a chicken version of meat loaf? It’s a fantastic dish for all those “well what can I do with that?” ingredients. For example, my mother gave me 4 cans of chicken. Canned chicken is not a staple in our house, and other than a quick chicken salad, there’s not much else I’ve ever done with it. But we needed a quick prep dinner that could cook unattended tonight while we raced the sun to finish mowing the lawn (didn’t make it) before dark. As I also had leftover brown rice, homemade chicken stock, and a huge bag of homemade breadcrumbs in the pantry, this was a perfect fit. It can also be made ahead of time and frozen.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups cooked, diced chicken (I used 2 cans of chicken for this recipe, though this is fantastic with leftover rotisserie or roast chicken)
- 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 3 cups broth (reserve 1 for gravy)
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup (1/2 is intended for gravy, but I missed the small print on the post it note where I had the recipe written and used the whole thing–it didn’t hurt a thing, except that I added another half cup of breadcrumbs)
- 3 eggs well-beaten
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350
- Beat eggs and mix with all wet ingredients.
- Add chicken and rice. Mix well
- Add breadcrumbs. Mix well. It will be kind of soupy.
- Pour into a 2 quart casserole dish or 9×13 pan for 45-50 minutes.
Variations:
In the past I have added some other veggies to this casserole, primarily diced crimini mushrooms, but you could take a sort of tuna casserole approach and add diced celery, peas, carrots, and/or scallions if you wanted to get your veggies in one dish. I tend to prefer this as is, with a side veggie like green beans. You might also add 1/2 cup of low fat sour cream for a richer flavor.
3 thoughts on “Chicken Loaf”
This sounds like a great replacement for meatloaf!!
It really is. I’m not a huge fan of regular meat loaf (mostly because I hate ketchup), but this I love.
I love this, it has lots of meat.