The Third Breast -Anti Chef

Hang on to your hats and cinch up those granny panties...Anti Chef is here...you never know the madness he will create...but madness it will be...Read More.

Okay, my Mom was, and is a genius when it comes to the "creative re use" of meal items. As kids, we always had the "first night" offering, whether it was a roast, or baked chicken, or spaghetti, and then there was the "next night" end of the deal. She makes something now which my nieces refer to as "Chicken Chow Chow", which is alright because they are ages three and five. It really doesn't matter how you come to find yourself with left over chicken to use or lose. There are many ways to roast a bird. Some may choose to use boneless and skinless fillets right out of the package and into a casserole dish with a can of cream of chicken soup, while the more masterful may choose to begin with a whole chicken, breaking it down and braising it in a roasting pan. Like I said, who cares, you are not on television, what do you do with your left overs? Mom's take on that will give you a great platform from which to launch your "next night" chicken adventure. All you will need is some left over chicken breast, and some sort of sauce or gravy.

This recipe works great for families like mine or my brothers'; two parents (on the smaller side) and a young kid or two (lighter eaters). If you have a larger family and older kids, you may want to jump up a little on portion size, but for a small family like ours, this is perfect. This recipe came from my Mom's need to use the "third breast" you get in most packages of boneless and skinless chicken these days. I prefer to use the whole bird, or at least split breasts with the skin, bones and rib meat, which IS cheaper BUT, if you have candy ass "kids" around that don't like bones...blah blah blah, the boneless/skinless pack o' three works great, and saves a little time. There, weak justification....and they are usually pretty large breasts, 7 to 9 ounces each, so even on a "first night" basis we usually only eat part of one breast each, sharing a little of ours with our daughter. This will leave one large breast to chop up and cut with some egg noodles, sauce, and veggies, for a tasty "next night" casserole.Sorry, I go on a bit, I am long winded, like Mom, so here...."Chicken Chow Chow".

ingredients:

-1/2 stick of butter
-one cooked chicken breast, cut into chunks
-one celery stalk, washed and trimmed and diced
-one carrot, peeled and diced
-barely an eighth of an onion, a quarter of a quarter even, a little bit, but diced
-tablespoon of chopped pimiento
-about a half to one cup of sauce or gravy
-2 cups whole milk
-1/4 cup frozen peas ( or leftover cooked peas)
-about 2 cups cooked egg noodles ( about 1/4 of a 16 ounce package)
-4 ounces grated cheese ( cheddar is good, but whatever you have, play around)
-a good handful of crushed potato chips to sprinkle on top

method:

-preheat oven to 350 degrees
-cook egg noodles according to package directions and reserve to the side
-in a large skillet, melt butter, and saute the onion, celery and carrot until softened.
-add the pimientos, chicken, sauce, milk and peas. stir to blend well and heat to just simmering.
-add the cooked egg noodles* and the cheese and stir to mix well.
-pour the contents of the pan into a greased 9 x 13 casserole, top with crushed potato chips and bake, uncovered for
35 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown on top.
-serve hot, or give to a family member who has no time to cook, like my Brother. that's why Mom makes this usually.

* cook's note:

- it is easy to ruin this with too many egg noodles. you DO NOT want this to be dry, so keep that in mind when you add the noodles.
don't add them all at once, if you should cook too many to use in this dish, you can always re heat them by running them under hot water
later, and tossing them with a little butter and parma-, or tomato or meat sauce for a kid's (or midnight) snack.