King Ranch Casserola

 

 

Yes, yes, I know that it's supposed to say Casserole but part of my love of looking through these recipes is to see all the different handwriting and different ways people spelled (or misspelled) words. It's fascinating to me, which is why I came up with this entire Second Chance Kitchen in the first place.

Just like many of you, I've made this casserole many times before. BUT, I've never seen it call for a hen. I've never cooked an entire chicken. Good thing my mom was here! She shook her head when I told her I was going to toss the whole thing in a pot and cook it then cut it up. She quickly grabbed my big knife, cutting board and went to town cutting up that raw chicken. While she was doing that, I asked her if we were sure it was a hen and not a rooster. The recipe specifically calls for a hen. How do you know which one you're getting? Probably a dumb question, so please enlighten me if you know the answer. 

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

King Ranch Casserola

1 Hen cooked and deboned

2 cups grated American cheese

1 doz. tortillas cut fine

1 onion cut fine

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup chicken broth

1 can rotel

Combine last 4 ingredients for sauce. Place layer of ½ chicken, ½ of sauce, ½ of tortillas, ½ of onion and cheese in casserola (casserole) and repeat for secold (second) layer with cheese on top. Bake 1 hour at 350°

* I used all the meat from the chicken for this recipe

* I used the broth the chicken was cooked in for the 1 cup of chicken broth

* I used corn tortillas (just incase someone was wondering)

* I used the mild rotel to make sure my kiddos would eat it

* I used mild cheddar cheese

* Lastly, I used a deep 9x13 glass casserole dish to make this in.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Pork Chop Caserole

Pork Chop Caserole

First of all, yes I realize "caserole" is misspelled. That's how the recipe is written though, and personally, I LOVE that :) It's why finding handwritten recipes is so wonderful and one of the main reasons why I started this blog 7 years ago :)

My normal cooking usually involves chicken or ground beef/turkey. Since having kids, I can’t stand the smell of ground beef cooking. I usually have to season the pan, add the beef then add more seasoning to it. So, if I had my choice we’d eat ground turkey more often than not. Anyway, I’ll be completely honest and say that I have no idea how to pick meat in other forms. It’s not that I don’t love other types of meat, I just don’t buy it enough. My husband doesn’t care for meat on the bone which means I don’t buy it often. My poor kids have no idea how to really get in there and clean off a rib bone or piece of chicken on the bone. Poor things, I’ve done them a disservice!

Anyway, I’m trying to venture out more so when I found this little gem of a quick and easily put together “caserole” I had to try it. Now, I had to think back to when these recipes might have originated. My guess was that they didn’t use brown rice and they probably didn’t have center cut boneless pork chops back then. I could be wrong. So I used good old fashioned white rice and regular cut bone-in pork chops. It really was super easy to throw together. I will say that I accidentally rinsed the rice. It’s a habit and I didn’t realize the recipe didn’t call for a pre rinse. Oops. It was also really hard to not season the meat. I can’t stand gamey tasting meat, so against my better judgement, I just laid it in the broth. I only used 4 pork chops since that’s what fit nicely into my baking dish. I also wanted to add another 1/2c of rice but I didn’t. Just a mental note for future reference.

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven

My interpretation of the recipe:

Pork Chop Caserole

From: Eva

4½ cups water
½ cup rice
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
4 or 5 pork chops

Pour water in baking dish, sprinkle rice in water, sprinkle soup mix over rice, place pork chops on top

Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour or until done.

* I used a 9x13 deep glass baking dish
* Do not overbake! I kept adding time because there was so much liquid. I would have added at least another ½ cup of rice to help.
* I did not season the pork chops. If I make this again, I will definitely do so.
* Using bone-in chops made the rice have a gelatinous consistency.
* Will use boneless chops if made again.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.