Chicken Alfredo Casserole

The girls at my house requested Alfredo tonight and I thought about it and made it into a chicken casserole. Next time I will double the recipe and freeze a pan.


Chicken Alfredo Casserole

9x13 baking pan

1 whole chicken (I buy the "pick of the chick" or "whole cut up")
1/2 c. butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 c. half and half (or heavy cream if you need the full stuff)
1/2 t. white pepper
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
3/4 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
16 oz. penne rigate pasta

1. Cook chicken; cut into small pieces or shred and place into a bowl to cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Start water for pasta as directed on box.
2. In a large saucepan, melt butter on medium heat; add garlic; saute for about 2 minutes.
3. Add white pepper and cheeses. Stir cheese until all is melted.
4. Add Half and Half a bit at a time. Continue stirring until all is incorporated.
5. Continue to allow alfredo sauce to cook; about 8 minutes additional. Remove from heat.
6. After pasta is cooked, rinse and drain.
7. Place 1/2 the pasta into the 9x13" baking dish; top with 1/2 the chicken and 1/2 the alfredo sauce; stir to cover with sauce. Add remaining pasta, chicken and sauce. Stir again. Cover with foil and place in oven. Bake for about 30 minutes.
8. Serve warm with garlic bread and a nice salad.

Renee's Chicken and Dumplings

My boss brought in Chicken and Dumplings the other day to work. They tasted soooo good. I asked for the recipe and she said; "you're not going to believe how easy this is to make". Good, I like easy! The other good part of this recipe is inexpensive. For about $7.00 I made enough chicken and dumplings for 1 meal, lunch a 2nd day and froze about 2 servings for later in the week.
NOTE: when buying biscuits, look for inexpensive ones; you don't need Pillsbury, any store brand or off brand will do. Look for homestyle, not butter or flaky. Also, in the recipe I refer to biscuits before they get into the broth, but dumplings once in the pot.



1 whole chicken; remove giblets if they are in the chicken
4 cans of inexpensive refrigerated biscuits (the ones I buy come in a 4 pack)
chicken stock / bouillon cubes or grains
1 stick of butter
flour
stock pot


1. Place chicken in stock pot with enough water to cover chicken. Let chicken boil on high for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Check chicken for doneness (no pink color near the bones)
2. Remove chicken, place in bowl to cool.
3. In pot of boiling water add the stick of butter. Measure the bouillon / stock / grains to about how much water in left in your stock pot. I used about 6 bouillon cubes. At this time if you think you want more liquid, add more water and stock liquid / grains etc.
4. Open a package of biscuits; on a lightly floured surface, roll each biscuit thin. Cut in half and then into small strips (you should get about 10 pieces per biscuit). Add about 4 T. of flour to a medium sized bowl; toss biscuit pieces with flour in bowl. I was placing about 1/2 a can into the bowl and then putting those into boiling broth to cover the top.
5. After each addition of biscuits to the broth, stir about every 1 or 2 minutes. Dumplings will puff up and then will sink to the bottom. Stirring will help the dumplings to not stick to the bottom of the pot.
6. Continue making more dumplings; adding to broth; stirring. Until all are added.
7. By this time your chicken should be cooled enough to remove from bones and shred. Place shredded chicken into the pot.
8. Enjoy chicken and dumplings!