Hot Chicken Salad

Corning Dish REQUIRED. Just Kidding.

Preface: I somehow inherited this corning dish from a church garage-sale right before I went off to college and 15 years later it is still my casserole dish! At this point, why would I ever get a new one? This thing will be passed on to my children… grandchildren…

Okay so on to the recipe! This is another recipe passed on from my Grammy, to my Mom, to me :) Hot Chicken Salad is a retro chicken-and-rice dish that is SO SO good. In my family it is ALWAYS served with blueberry muffins and to this day I have never ever had it without a blueberry muffin.

The sautéed celery and water chestnuts give great texture to the casserole and the slivered almonds on top finish off the crunchy ingredients nicely.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups or 12 oz of shredded chicken

• 4 stalks of celery, diced and sautéed in butter until soft

• 2 cups white rice (I use the quick-cooking rice)

• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup

• 5 oz can of water chestnuts

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 2 tsp onion flakes

• salt and pepper to taste

TOPPING

• 1 cup cornflakes

• 1/3 cup slivered almonds

For the chicken, you can roast some chicken breasts in the oven with salt & pepper and shred, but I usually just buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it (more flavor). I was at Target the other day and they even sell pre-shredded rotisserie chicken!

This recipe is so easy - it’s basically dump, top, and bake!

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients (except cornflakes and almonds). Pour into a greased casserole dish (Corning dish!). Top with crunched up cornflakes and slivered almonds.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Serve HOT with BLUEBERRY MUFFINS! Please :)