Ritzy Chicken Casserole

3 small sleeves Ritz Everything crackers
1/2 cup French fried onions, crushed

1 can Cream of Chicken or Mushroom soup

1 cup sour cream

¾ cup chicken broth

Chopped chicken

4 oz melted butter

1 cup cooked rice

Crumble one sleeve of Ritz crackers in the bottom of a 2 ½ quart casserole dish.  Drizzle half of the melted butter over crackers.  Mix chicken with soup, sour cream, broth and rice.  Pour over crackers.  Crush the other sleeve of crackers over mixture.  Drizzle with remaining butter.  Bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Martha:  This is a remake of a recipe that's been around for a while.  I made a couple of changes, of course.  The original called for 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers, I used the Ritz 'Everything' crackers which have onion, poppy seeds, garlic and sea salt but used only 3 of the short sleeves.  I also added the French fried onions to the Ritz.  That was it.  No more changes but the 2 that I did make gave this dish a taste that is so good!  My food testers all loved and raved about it.  This will feed 6-8.  You can make a few of your own changes if you want.  You could make this into a 'pot pie' by adding a few cooked carrots and English peas.  That too would be good additions.

Complete Chicken Dinner

1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen broccoli, chopped
4 med. potatoes
2 large chicken breasts, cooked
1 cup mayonnaise
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup Panko

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook broccoli until tender.  Drain well and place in the bottom of a 3 qt. baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.  Peel and slice potatoes.  Cook until tender, drain, place on top of broccoli.  Break chicken up into bite size pieces and place on top of potatoes.  In a large bowl combine both soups and mayonnaise.  Pour over chicken.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and cheese has melted.  Sprinkle with Panko and cook an additional 5 minutes or until Panko starts to lightly brown.  Serves 4-6 depending upon how hungry you are.

Martha:  I have a neighbor who had a stroke so I decided to make a dish for she and her sister to eat on for a couple of days.  I found this recipe in an old cookbook and made just a couple of changes.  The original didn't call for the potatoes which I added to really make this a complete meal.  It called for curry powder and lemon juice which I left out and it called for 2 cans of cream of chicken.  I made the change to use 1 chicken and 1 mushroom.  My chicken I actually sprinkled with salt, pepper and crushed rosemary and let it refrigerate overnight baking it in the oven the next day.  This added another flavor that fit very well.  That combined with the mayonnaise mixed with the soups add yet another touch to the flavor.    The dish came out simply delicious!  It's simple to make and is perfect to take to a shut-in, take to a pot luck or serve at your own home.