Sunday, January 9, 2011

What to do?

We had a beautiful ham for Sunday dinner today. I glazed the ham with a spicy mustard and honey glaze and it turn out way scrumptious. But my tiny dilemma is what to do with the left overs besides ham sandwiches for the rest of the week? And then an idea came to me.... why not do a Chicken Cordon Bleu type casserole???? I found a base recipe on www.allrecipes.com and then I tweaked it.

4 cups Panko crumbs (or cornflakes)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (fresh)
1/4 cup butter, melted
10 cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast, chunked
salt and ground black pepper to taste
6 cups cubed Havarti cheese (You could use Swiss)
1 pound cooked ham, chunked
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 bunch green onions, sliced
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter, melted (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish. Mix the Panko crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup melted butter in a large bowl, then spread about 2/3 of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Layer half the chicken breast chunks over the crumb base, and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Cover with half the Havarti cheese, then a layer of ham, followed by layers of mushrooms and green onions. Mix the cream of chicken soup and sour cream together in a bowl, and spread the mixture over the green onion layer. Place the rest of the chicken chunks onto the soup layer, followed by the rest of the Havarti cheese. Top the casserole with the remaining 1/3 of the crumb mixture. Drizzle with 2 more tablespoons of melted butter if desired. Cover the casserole with aluminum foil, and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes; remove the foil and bake until the casserole is bubbling, the cheese has melted, and the crumb topping is brown, an additional 15 minutes.

So this casserole looks really good and smells pretty good while combining everything. I'm putting it in the fridge overnight and we'll feast upon it tomorrow. I think we might have a new family dinner!

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