Books Bygone

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Recipe: Southern Chicken Casserole


“Southern” because it’s cooked to death, until the chicken falls off the bone

[And, I'll add, because it has bacon.]

SOUTHERN CHICKEN CASSEROLE

Serves 4 generously

2 ½ - 3 lbs chicken, whole cut up or parts
½ lb bacon
4 medium potatoes, pared and quartered lengthwise
2 C veggies (green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, squash—you choose; thawed if frozen)
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ C green onions or shallots, minced
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350o. In Dutch oven, fry bacon until crisp. Remove and drain. Add chicken to bacon drippings, browning on all sides. Remove chicken to a 2-quart casserole. Layer veggies on top of chicken. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning, salt, and black pepper. Fry quartered potatoes in remaining bacon drippings, browning on all sides. Place browned potato slices on top of chicken and veggies. Top potatoes with onion slices. Top all with green onions, and parsley. Top with bacon broken into pieces. Cover. Bake for 1 ½ hours.

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"Serves 4 generously"  
This is good people like The South. We have a very generous definition of "generous."

2 comments:

  1. Half a pound of bacon??? Wow. On the other hand, my "American Chop Suey" - a family favorite - calls for 4 slices, which is a quarter pound. And you're using the grease to do the potatoes and onions...so...ok. I could live with that. Although bacon is getting _expensive_!

    I do have a problem with baking the veggies that long...I'd probably cut the time for the veggies only in half. Or cook them separately. But then you _did_ say _Southern_.

    A lady who babysat for me once was from the backwoods of Tennessee. She cooked her green beans with bacon for about three hours. Canned beans - she had put them up herself. So...you process them for 40 minutes at 15 lbs pressure, then cook for another 3 hours. Yowzez. I generally use frozen green beans - which normally are blanched before freezing - and cook them about 5-10 minutes. But then - my family is from the northeast...what can you expect!

    I brought a veggie/dip platter to a friend's house for something...potluck cocktails? I don't remember... Raw veggies. One of the other wives was a southerner...I asked her how she liked the green beans/dip combo...she replied that it was very good. Nothing wrong with it that 2-3 hours of cooking wouldn't fix...! At which point we both laughed uproariously...! 'cause we both _knew_...

    The dip was a really good one that I've somehow lost the recipe for. It was just mayonnaise with a lot sugar (relatively) and a bunch of powdered garlic powder, and let stand for a couple of hours. It goes kind of yellowish, with a translucent quality to it, and people swear that you've put mustard in it. They never guess you used mayonnaise.

    Weird dip. Really good and really easy. I'm thinking it was something like 1 cup of mayo, 1/2 cup of sugar and 2-3 tsp of garlic powder. And then let it sit in the frig for about 2-3 hours. Maybe longer. If it looks like mayonnaise, it isn't "done".

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  2. I know. Cooked to death is truly Southern. I wonder what the historical story is on this. My mom flash cooks green beans. In and out of boiling water. I like them that way, too. But I do understand the appeal of cooked to death.

    Your dip recipe sounds a lot like what Mr. Big Food will whip up when he's in a hurry.

    Back to the green beans. Here's the best beans ever: Wake up. Get coffee. Go to garden. Pick & eat. There's nothing like raw green beans right off the vine!

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