In the Kitchen with Karin: Creamy Chicken-Broccoli Bake

There are several reasons why I love this recipe. It has creaminess, broccoli (my favorite vege), noodles, it makes a great freezer meal and/or you can make it the night before/morning of and keep in the fridge all day and pop into the oven right before dinner.

Please beware this makes a really full 9x13 pan. If you need to stretch this for a big family then go ahead and add more mushrooms and broccoli. I also love that this recipe is a perfect freezer meal. You can double it the whole recipe and freeze a 9x13 pan of it or do what I did and take half of this recipe and cook it and freeze the other half. Last time we ate as much as we could between dinner and leftovers, but you can only do so many leftovers right? We probably threw away at least 1/3. This time I cooked it in an 8x8 pan and it was perfect, plus now I have a meal in the freezer for a crazy hectic day.

Kids Verdict: Isabelle loved the noodles and ate some of the chicken and broccoli. Matthew wouldn't touch it - his latest excuse is that he hates green things except for grapes.

Today's Ingredients:
10 oz. dried medium noodles (fettucine)
1 ½ lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
8 green onions, sliced
1 medium red sweet pepper, seeded and chopped*
2 10.75 oz. cans condensed cream of broccoli soup
2 8-oz. cartons sour cream - I used light and it worked great
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons dry mustard
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 16-oz. package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
½ cup fine dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

*I did use a red pepper last time I made this, but did not use this time. You can go either way and it works well.

Dice your chicken and get your water going for your noodles.

Now use your imagination and pretend I have a picture of chicken cooking. Apparently I forgot to take a picture of that step. Cook on medium heat for about 3 min. I just used Pam and didn't even cook them in olive oil. Once they are cooked through and no longer pink then transfer them to a big bowl.

Dice your green onions (they are hiding under the mushrooms) and mushrooms.

Cook the mushrooms, green onions and red pepper if you are using. Cook until softened.

Once the vege's are cooked add the vege's, broccoli, broccoli soups, sour cream, chicken stock, mustard and black pepper to the bowl and mix all together.

Once the noodles are done drain them, rinse them and then drain again. Mix the noodles into the chicken mixture.

I know you aren't supposed to rinse noodles, but for this casserole you really don't want all the noodles sticking together.

Once I mixed everything together I transferred as much as I could to my foil pan which was slightly smaller than my to cook 8x8 pan. Do not put any bread crumbs on your dish that you'll be freezing.

I covered tightly with foil. Labeled what it was and then also wrote what temperature to cook it at and for how long. Perfect for a crazy, busy day or when I just don't want to cook.

If you do freeze part of this, then when you want to cook it - do the following: Take from freezer and put in 400 degree oven for 50 min. (covered). Mix together the crumb mixture and sprinkle over the top. Cook for another 10-15 min (uncovered), or until crumbs are golden brown.

Mix the melted butter and the bread crumbs together for a nice topping.

Sprinkle over the top of your chicken mixture and cover with foil. Even though I had halved the recipe to actually cook, I did use the full amount of butter and bread crumbs for the topping.