Recipes Discovered

Oh Boy Casserole Recipe

For whatever reason, while I was looking through the 1972 Pennsylvania State Grange Cookbook, I kept coming back to this recipe for Oh Boy Casserole. I’m not sure why because it’s not anything really unusual. It’s a classic chicken and rice casserole with a twist, but just the title caught my attention. I can imagine my dad saying, “oh boy, we’re having oh boy casserole tonight!”. When I told him that however, he said it could also be a very sarcastic oh boy, which completely changes the recipe. In any case, I decided to make it anyway. >>

I boiled 2 chicken breast halves and then let them cool before removing the meat from the bones. I ended up with about 2 cups of shredded meat. I then sauteed a large onion in a little oil before adding the shredded chicken to the pan. For the soup, I used Campbell’s Healthy Request, which has 45% less sodium than their regular soup, which was a good idea (more on why later). I added both soups to the pan, along with 1 1/2 cans of water, soy sauce, and 1 cup of cooked brown rice. It takes 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice to make 1 cup of cooked. I omitted the salt from the recipe, but I did add the 1/2 teaspoon of celery salt. While the mixture was simmering, I thought that it looked way too runny, so I added an extra 1/2 cup of uncooked brown rice. After it simmered for about 15 minutes, I mixed in about a cup of chow mein noodles and transferred the whole mixture to a 9×9 casserole dish that I had sprayed with Pam and topped it with another 1/2 cup of chow mein noodles. It baked for about 25 minutes before the top started to brown, and then I let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.

First of all, I am so glad I used the low sodium soups and that I didn’t add the salt. I thought the casserole was still a little too salty, so next time I will probably use celery seed instead of celery salt. Other than that though, the dish was actually pretty good. It wasn’t earth shattering, but it was good. The extra rice was a good idea, as it gave the casserole a little more thickness. The chow mein noodles were a nice change from regular crackers. The ones on top added a pleasant crunch and the ones instead added a lot of texture. Like I said, the casserole wasn’t the greatest thing ever, but it was decent. And now my dad can say, “oh boy, we are having oh boy casserole” and not have to be sarcastic about it.