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.

Chicken Broccoli Rollups

1 stalk fresh broccoli
6 slices deli ham (1/8" thick, approx.)
6 slices cheese
6 strips leftover cooked chicken (1/2 x 1/2 x 4 long approx.)
horseradish sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut broccoli florets off the stalk.  Boil in water for about 5 minutes.  You want them about half way done.  Spray a baking dish with non-stick spray.  Roll 2-3 broccoli florets and 1 piece of chicken in the cheese, then roll everything in the ham.  Place seam side down in baking dish.  After all six slices have been rolled, bake for about 15 minutes or until cheese has melted and the dish is hot.  Top with just a slight coating of horseradish sauce.  Serves 2 - 3

Martha:  I found the basic recipe for this in a 1974 cookbook.  The original called for broccoli, ham and Swiss cheese.  I made mine 4 different ways.  2 had Swiss cheese, 2 had cheddar cheese, 1 had Swiss cheese with chicken and 1 had cheddar cheese with chicken.  The original didn't call for the horseradish sauce but I thought it would be a great addition and believe me it was!  This is an easy, quick dish to make.  It's something you can whip up in no time and have not only a tasty dish but a healthy one too.  Now for changes - try covering the dish with Alfredo sauce when baking.

Chicken Steak & Gravy

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1/2 cup flour for dredge
1 tsp. dried onions
1/2 cup milk
Olive oil

Heat olive oil on med. heat.  In a shallow bowl mix flour and dried onions.  Pour milk into another shallow bowl.  Slice chicken through the thickness creating 2 thin 'steaks.'  Dip chicken in milk and then into flour/onions.  Fry slowly, browning on both sides, until done.  Remove from pan and keep warm.  If needed, pour off any olive oil left in pan after chicken has cooked.  Add dried onion soup mix and mushroom soup.  Stir until blended to make a gravy.  If it becomes too thick, add enough milk to create the thickness you want. If it's too thin, mix a Tbsp. of flour with 1/4 cup water and add to gravy.  Serve over chicken. Serves 3-4

Martha:  While looking through one of the vintage cookbooks my beautiful sister Lillian sent to me.  I ran across a recipe for Cubed Steak which, of course, used cubed steak.  I'm not much of a beef eater anymore but the recipe did sound good as well as simple.  So, I decided to Think With My Taste Buds and decided this would be good using chicken too.  And it is!  The flavor of the gravy was so good that I could have eaten it by the spoonfuls.  I did use my rice flour for battering the chicken but I can't call this one gluten free because the mushroom soup does have wheat flour as an ingredient.  This is a must try dish for chicken or beef or even beef.