Amaretto Chicken & Creamed Noodles Recipe

Quick chicken casserole uses canned soup, vegetables, mushrooms, amaretto, and noodles with a creamy sauce. It may seem like a lot of ingredients, but this goes together quite fast to make a hearty meal. If you use large chicken breast halves, cut each in half to serve and this will easily feed 8 people.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• Sauce:
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1 can cream of celery soup, undiluted
• 1/2 cup amaretto
• 1/2 soup-can water
• 1/2 soup-can milk
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
• .
• Chicken:
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 teaspoon (about) sweet Hungarian paprika
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• .
• Vegetables:
• 8 ounces mushrooms, brushed clean and sliced
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, sliced into strips
• 1/2 cup frozen sweet peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup roasted red peppers, diced
• .
• Noodles:
• 1 package (12 ounces) wide egg noodles
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tablespoon chopped parsley

Preparation:

Whisk together cream of mushroom soup, cream of celery soup, amaretto, water, milk, thyme, sage, and pepper. (You should have 4 cups.) Set aside.

Sprinkle chicken with paprika, salt, and pepper. Heat a deep, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add olive oil and brown chicken on both sides until golden, turning only once. Remove to a platter and keep warm.

Add mushrooms, sweet onion, green pepper, peas, celery, almonds, and roasted red peppers to the same skillet. Stir-fry just until mushrooms begin to give up their liquid and vegetables begin to soften. Stir often and cook about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of the sauce mixture to the vegetables, stirring gently to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper, if needed.

Bring vegetables back to a simmer and top with the browned chicken breasts. Spoon 1 more cup of the sauce over the chicken breasts (reserving remaining 2 cups of sauce for noodles). Cover and simmer over very low heat for 15 minutes.

While chicken is simmering, cook noodles in salted water along with the bay leaf. Warm remaining sauce mixture in a separate saucepan. Drain water and return noodles to the hot pot, discarding bay leaf. Add heated sauce and parsley. Toss to coat the noodles. Adjust salt and pepper, if needed. Re-warm gently if necessary.

Serve chicken and vegetables with (or on top of) the creamy noodles.

Yield: 4 generous servings for hearty appetites or 8 smaller servings