Tuesday, April 05, 2011

I Made it My Way

Yep,  I was visiting a cooking website for what to do with leftover chicken.  I had to change it a lot, therefore that means I made it my own. What did I do? 

Let's call it a chicken/broccoli pasta cassserole.

First I preheated an oven to 350 degrees F 

1 whole package of uncooked whole wheat penne pasta
It asked for one can of cream of chicken soup - I can't use that due to the high salt content.
I used three cups of homemade chicken broth,  and with it I made a standard medium white sauce except I used 2 TBL of Brummel & Brown with yogurt as the butter substitute.
1 package of frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained.
1 cup of tiny cut chicken breast ( my DH likes chicken but it has to be small enough that he doesn't have to "fight"  with his food - more chicken is fine if you really like profuse poultry
1/2 skim milk or 1%
1/2  tsp garlic powder but I used 1 tsp - I like garlic
1/2 freshly ground black pepper
1 cup of low fat cheese ( I used the Kraft mixture of colby/cheddar and a few others - don't remember now)



Directions
Fill a large pot with water ( I don't put salt in my water)  and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the penne pasta, and return to a boil. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 10 minutes. Why does it always take me more? LOL  Drain well.

In another large sauce pan I mixed up a white sauce with the chicken broth, I whipped in the garlic and pepper and when creamy and mixed,  then I added the chicken and the broccoli and that 1/2 milk because I made a LOT of pasta. 

Then, I dumped the whole thing into my Corningware casserole dish, sprinkled all the cheese all over and put it in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese melted.  I didn't bother with putting a cover on it but I guess you could.

My kids liked MORE cheese and they can eat regular cheese so they sprinkled shredded mild chedder over the serving in their plates.

All in all, it was a tastey new way to use leftover chicken. 
I hope you didn't mind my sharing.
:-)

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