A classic among classics! The Chicken & Noodle Casserole is as old as casseroles themselves. This 1950s family-supper staple evokes cherished childhood memories for millions. And, as such, it’s definitely due for a comeback. But it’s also classically yummy!
Casseroles constitute a whole chapter in the Western World’s big collective cook-book. The form spans continents and cultures, and it not only survives but thrives in the world as it is today: where new generations are looking for cheap, fast and easy ways to put supper on the table…
A little history…
“The canned food industry saw [casser-oles] as an absolute godsend for alter-native uses for canned foods,” says Kentucky-based food historian Rachel Laudan. As such, it was just one of many concepts canners came up with in their ‘test kitchens’.
“One-pot dishes have a very long hist-ory, but casseroles as we know them originate in the 1930s,” explains Dr. Janis Thiessen, a food historian at the Uni-versity of Winnipeg and the author of Snacks: A Canadian Food History.
The Great Depression…
The 30s was the decade of the Great Depression, when folks were desperate for cheap but nutritious meals to feed big families. The archetypal ‘model’, featuring canned soups and veggies bulked up with inexpensive pasta, hit its stride in the 1950s, when women began to work outside the home and didn’t have ‘all day’ to prepare meals.
The concept was also popular because it minimized dishwashing. And eliminated the stress over choosing and making sides, and getting them to come out at the same time as the main. I can clearly recall my Mom bringing a steaming casserole to the supper table and reporting proudly that she did it all without peeling a single potato!
Thiessen calls casseroles the 1950s equivalent of sheet-pan dinners: “They’re fast, easy, and you only mess up a few dishes so you’re not going to be cleaning up forever.”
Chicken & Noodles
There’s a traditional, can’t-miss formula for the classic Chicken & Noodles casserole. It specifies shredded or cubed pre-cooked chicken, noodles of your choice (twisty, flat egg noodles by choice), your choice of veggies (peas, carrots, corn kernels, or whatever), and a can or two of Cream of Mushroom soup.
Larger veggies should be cubed small (about 3/8 in / 1 cm on a side) so they’ll all cook at the same rate.
Par-boil the noodles. They’ll cook the rest of the way in the casserole when it bakes in the oven.
Just add the well-drained pasta to a standard casserole dish with sides at least 2 in. / 5 cm tall, and toss in the rest of the ingredients. Stir gently to combine.
Top with a generous layer of buttered bread crumbs, and bake in a 350 – 375 F oven until the filling begins to bubble and the topping toasts to a golden brown…
Tips and hacks
You may, at this point, be saying, “What? No seasoning? No herbs or spices?” Remember, you’re using canned soup. It contains lots of salt and pepper, and all the other standard flavourings that go with Chicken. And you don’t even have to provide mushrooms separately!
To get an idea of ingredient amounts, feel free to consult this classic recipe from the Chicken Farmers of Canada…
My take
Why did we all get out of the habit of making such easy and tasty meals as casseroles? And chili, hearty soups and stews, Beef Stroganoff, and baked/cowboy beans? And so many others?
The answer is simple: we were seduced by intensive advertising – brainwashing – from the processed food industry in the 1970s and 80s to ‘prefer’ their products. And let’s not forget the parallel mega-marketing efforts of the Fast Food sector, which exploded at the same time, using the same entice-ments: quick, easy, addictively tasty grab-and-go foods…
~ Maggie J.