Country Casserole
In my family, if you die, get sick, have a car accident, have a baby, have a potluck, have a family reunion, have a picnic, get bad news, get hungry, or get last minute dinner guests…You get a Country Casserole!
This is our standard family casserole. It shows up everywhere! Why? Because we love it! This casserole is quick, easy, filling, great tasting, an inexpensive way to feed a crowd, a complete meal in one, freezes AMAZINGLY well, can be made even MORE easy by using canned chicken when you’re not in the mood to cook chicken ahead of time, and more importantly, its my husband’s personal favorite.
There! You ready for the recipe now?
Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!
You’ll need: small shell pasta, cream of chicken soup, garlic powder (just a bit), milk, shredded cheddar cheese, canned french fried onions, and frozen mixed vegetables.
Also some salt and pepper.
I’m warning you: I am making a little more than double recipe of this. I never make a single recipe. I showed the ingredients for a single (only one can of soup and such), but in the photographs I am taking you are going to think “WOW, that thing is huge!”. I never make just one of these casseroles because they freeze so incredibly well. With the effort of a single casserole and just a little more cost wise you can have an extra casserole anytime you need it! I go into some nifty reheating instructions as well as convenient storage instructions for the extra casserole later in this post.
You’ll also need chicken! You can cook it and shred it or you can just buy a large can of chicken and dump that right in when the time comes!
I have made this so many times, I have it down to a streamlined art. Set some water on to boil and pour your pasta in…….
Now pour your frozen mixed vegetables in right on top of it.
That’s right, we’re going to cook them all together at the same time and they will turn out just as fine as if you cooked them separately.
Cook until pasta is almost done. Drain well and pour into a large bowl.
At this point I am using my trusty red dishpan!
Add chicken.
I usually shred my chicken finer than this but my parents stopped by and Daddy was looking at a problem with my car so Mama insisted on staying outside due to that old martyr thing of “Well, he’s hot so I can’t be cool” and so I was in a hurry to get back outside due to the whole “Well, they’re outside so I can’t be inside….”
Pour in cream of chicken soup…
And milk
Add salt
Add garlic powder (Keep in mind the quantities you see here are for an almost triple recipe!)
Toss in cheese
Add pepper…
Pour in french fried onions.
Stir all of that up really well!
Spoon into a 9×13 inch pan and bake at 350 for thirty minutes.
Remove from oven and top with more french fried onions….
and more CHEESE!!!
Return to oven for a few minutes until all of the cheese melts.
Country Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 cups small shell pasta, cooked and drained
- 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables, cooked and drained
- 2 cups shredded cheddar, divided
- One can French fried onions, divided
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken (can use canned chicken or rotisserie )
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine everything in a large bowl, reserving half of the cheese and half of the onions for topping later. Spoon into 9x13 casserole dish. Bake for twenty five minutes. Top with remaining onions and cheese, bake until cheese is melted, about five minutes more.
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Freezing options: Instead of freezing this in your casserole dish, simply spoon it into a gallon ziploc bag. Lay the bag flat so that it will thaw out quicker and place it in your freezer.
On the day you want it, take it out the night before and refrigerate or place in fridge that morning.
If you forget to do all of this, no sweat! Just microwave the bag until it thaws just a bit, pour into your casserole, and bake!
To bake a casserole that is still frozen, simply place in the oven while the oven preheats. This allows the casserole to thaw quickly and then bake to perfection!
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Aug 23 2008. Filed under Chicken, Freezes Well, Main Course.
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[...] mother used to make this almost weekly. It was one of her favorite casseroles to make (next to Country Casserole) because of how quick and easy it was to throw together. She usually made it the night before and [...]
[...] Country Casserole (Can leave out chicken and make a side dish) [...]
My neice Gina makes what she calls “Refrigerator Casserole”. It’s pretty much this, but she uses the leftovers in her refrigerator for vegetables.
It’s good, and very economical.
Christy,
Is this recipe in your cookbook?
Yes Ma’am! I’m pretty sure it is. It’s our family classic!
When you are freezing an extra casserole do you bake it before you freeze it and then freeze or freeze unbaked and then baked thawed according to recipe?
Hey Angie! I freeze it unbaked and then thaw it in the fridge before baking according to directions.
However, you can bake a frozen casserole by simply putting it in the oven while it preheats and then adding about ten minutes to the baking time.
I prefer to use metal baking pans when I do it this way.
Hope this helps!
Gratefully,
Christy
This look so YUMMY!!! And is now on the menu for next week!
i needed a good main dish casserole recipe to share with teacher friends next week. This is great!! When you “almost triple” it – how many bags of veggies, how much chicken soup? Double is easy to figure, but I want to make LOTS and most of the ones I will share it with are just two folks at home, so I figure I can get four easy from this if it is almost tripled.
This is z great casserole, very filling & Quick, Kids love it! ENJOY
Thank u Christy
Sounds good..I’ll be making this! Thanks for all the GOOD recipes!!!!!! I’ve made many of them so far~~~~~~~~~:)
Thanks! I’m in a unique situation and recently moved out of the country, but all of my stuff hasn’t been shipped over yet, so I’ve got an (almost) empty kitchen! We had not one, but TWO, potlucks at work last week and we have ANOTHER one tomorrow. This casserole has been PERFECT because I was able to make it in the one pot I have, and use some foil cake pans I got at the grocery store. I also don’t have a car, and the ingredients all fit nicely into the baskets on my bike. Perfect! Thank you for sharing!
This was delicious!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
I made this tonight along with homemade baked beans and salad. My husband just loves casseroles and always asks for casserole when I ask him what he wants me to make. I used ham because it’s what I had, and frozen peas and carrots instead of the mixed veggies because he doesn’t like too many kinds of veggies mixed up in his casseroles. I also used half onions to try to cut back on the calories some (though it would’ve been great with the full amount). Turned out quite well anyway and I’ll definitely make this easy casserole again. Thanks!
A week ago, I had never heard of Southern Plate. I purchased your book at Sam’s Club, because it looked interesting. I have a major cookbook addiction, which I am trying to overcome, but I fell off the wagon;). I followed from there to this website, and have become hooked on it, too. Your recipes are like a step back into my childhood. My mother is still living, but has memory problems and doesn’t cook anymore. Many, many of your recipes are the same things that I was raised on, and most of your recipes are exactly the why we cooked them. I made your Country Casserole today,sort of doubled it to feed a crowd of 10, forgot to add the milk, which caused it to be too dry, so I added an extra can of cream of mushroom soup. In spite of my errors, it was still very good. It was well received by the adults and the 5 children, aged 12, 8, 6, 3 and 18 months. You are delightful, and I am sorry that I wasn’t able to attend the Oklahoma City stop in your book tour. Thanks.
when this recipe started out, I was reflecting on my homemade chicken pot pie recipe. I am going to try this one, hoping to sneek veggies to the toddlers.
SOUNDS GREAT — I ALWAYS HAVE EXACTLY 2 CUPS OF TURKEY LEFT-OVER IN MY FREEZER SOoooooooo , GUESS WHAT I”M MAKIN”???
ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING QUICK !! THANKX — YOU”RE A LIFE-SAVER !!!!!
I have made this several times and it is so easy to make and so good.
Just had this for dinner. So easy and all three picky kids ate it! Plus, there’s leftovers for my lunch tomorrow – mmmm.
Yummy!!!
[...] from the Front Porch -I made Kathy’s country casserole this week. It is so good and filling! The only thing I added was a drained can of Rotel for a little [...]
I’m excited to try this casserole – what size can of french fried onions do you use?
I don’t have a can here right now to tell you but it’s the size that holds about a cup to a cup and a half. Sorry I can’t be more specific but I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for your quick reply – the info you gave me is perfect.
Oh good! I’m so glad it made sense. I hate it when I can’t be specific. Hope you enjoy this!
Gratefully
Christy
[...] Country Casseroles southernplate.com [...]
I played clean out the pantry and freezer tonight with this as inspiration. I used a prepared mac n cheese, canned mixed veggies, no soup, extra milk, the french onions and some frozen cooked ground beef. Could not have been easier and was delicious. Thanks again!