Are you ready for another easy peasy dinner idea? This is Poppyseed Chicken. My wonderful next door neighbor made this for J & I one time. Ya know, before we had kids and we hung out every Sunday night watching Desperate Housewives (before it got too scandalous). Anyways, they are sweet people, and more importantly Steph is an awesome cook. She made this for us once when I was pregnant with Big Sister and it’s been a family favorite ever since. Even my super picky, non-casserole husband likes this! So, let’s get cooking, shall we?

First, let’s gather some things. You’ll need one sleeve of Ritz crackers, 1/2 cup of butter (not pictured because I forget things), a cooked chicken (I used these because I’m a mom of two little ones and I have limited hanging around the kitchen time), 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 8oz of sour cream and poppy seeds (you will be able to pass a drug test after this, promise).

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Take the chicken out of the container and place it in some corningware. If you’re married, you’re bound to have at least 12 of these things laying around.

Plop it in the oven for about 40 minutes. If you prefer to cook your own chicken, just boil enough for about two and half cups of chopped chicken. 3-4 breasts will be plenty.

Empty the sour cream into a mixing bowl. I love The Pampered Chef’s large mixing bowl. I could have five of these and still want more. But I’m greedy like that.

Stir it about. You can use fat free, low fat, full fat, store brand (whoo hoo) or just whatever your favorite sour cream is. It really doesn’t matter.

Make googly eyes at your cutie baby so she’ll stay happy.

Add 1 & 1/2 cans of the cream of chicken soup. I don’t know why, but one can is just not enough and two is too much. It’s such a waste, but you can use the other 1/2 for soup & crackers the next day for lunch. Trust me though, this matters.

Make sure you have some free help laying around. Big Sister loves to help stir. Especially when she has ketchup on her mouth.

Notice that we still haven’t painted the rest of the kitchen. James is having second thoughts on the color, but I think we should just finish painting it so we can stop having a redneck kitchen. But that’s just me…

Get about a palm full of poppy seeds and mix them into the sour cream, soup mix.

I’m telling you, two year olds are the best when it comes to stirring. It’s much better to let them help so they don’t try to catapult the baby out of the bouncer seat.

Yay! The chicken is done. Make sure you let this sucker cool off for a while. It’s HOT! So, cool it down, pop it in the fridge for a minute, or just put some gloves on.

Now, start tearing into it. I know some people really enjoying picking apart a chicken. I don’t. It grosses me out. I have to get every little vein, fatty piece, skin off. It just makes me kind of ick feeling. I blame my husband who can’t eat meat on bones. I think we’ve just been married long enough that his weirdness has rubbed off on me.

Pull enough meat off for about 2-2&1/2 cups of it. Cut it up, pull it apart, make it bite sized.

Throw it into the mixing bowl and stir.

Take out an entire stick of butter. Seriously. It has to be butter. I like unsalted because it makes me feel a little bit better about it. But it doesn’t truly matter either way. Your arteries will clog up just the same.

Put it into a microwave safe cup and heat for about 45 seconds on high, until completely melted.

Put mixture into yet another dish (or use the one you did for the chicken, just wash it out real quick). I know you have these things all over the place. Or maybe you were smart and returned some after the wedding?

Take the whole sleeve of Ritz crackers and crumble them ontop of the chicken mixture. This is also fun for the two year old… until she decides that you’re “breaking mah crackers!” and has a melt down. Break open another sleeve of crackers and feed them to her.

Take yet another palm full of poppy seeds…

… and sprinkle them on top of the casserole.

Take that melted 1/2 cup of butter and pour it all over the casserole. This will make your cracker topping extra crispy and super duper yummy.

It’s much harder to get a shot of butter pouring out than one would think.

Put the casserole in the oven for about 40-45 minutes (still on 350 degrees).

Yummy yummy yummy

Poppy Seed Chicken

about 4 cups of chopped chicken
1 1/2 cans of cream of chicken soup
8 oz of sour cream
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers
a few handfuls of poppy seeds
1/2 cup of melted butter

Mix cooked chopped chicken, soup and sour cream and a palm full of poppy seeds, spread into a baking dish. Crush crackers and cover the chicken mixture. Pour 1/2 cup of melted butter on top and then top with more poppy seeds.
Bake for 35-40 minutes on 350.
Yumm

Posted: 02|17|08 at 4:02 am. Filed under: Photo Cooking.
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