I’m not a casserole maker or much of a Crock Pot cook.  I don’t buy packages of this or cans of that to dump into a pot, baking dish, or slow cooker insert, but I get how time-saving a one dish meal can be, it’s just not my thing.  I’d rather bury myself in a complex dish and make everything from scratch, using the skills I’ve learned and practiced to challenge my creativity, but real life doesn’t always allow me to do that and every once in a while I get burned out and just don’t feel like it.

This was supposed to be a quick Friday night dish so I could maximize my time with my family, but I didn’t get it finished until just before bed time.  That’s because I  mistook a jar of yellow grits in the pantry for yellow cornmeal when I created the recipe and had to wait until my husband picked some up on his way home from work to finish it.  He also saved the day by bringing home pizza.  It was nice the next evening not to have to worry about what to make at the end of a long Saturday, but to be able to pull a ready-made meal out of the fridge for reheating.  We ate it while playing the Clue board game and watching the movie Clue.  Fun!

It ended up a little drier than I intended.  I think I was really wanting corn pudding when I decided to put it together, but it was more like an amplified cornbread than a corn pudding.  My family loved it.  They aren’t used to 1955 era, Baptist church pot luck dinner type food being set on the kitchen table before being scooped with a big spoon onto their plates.  Nice to know they are just as happy with something thrown together and reheated as they are with something I’ve slaved over.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked, shredded, chicken breast

3 eggs

2 1/2 c. corn

4 oz. cream cheese

1 c. milk

1/4 c. melted butter

3/4 c. self-rising cornmeal

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

6 oz. grated cheddar cheese

Method:

Grease a 2″X9″X9″ baking dish.  Heat oven to 35o degrees.

Beat together the eggs, cream cheese, and milk until smooth.  Add chicken, corn, and half the cheese.  Sift together the c0rnmeal, flour, salt, and sugar.  Add wet ingredients to dry.  Gently fold to combine.

Spoon into prepared dish.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake 55 minutes or until set in the center.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Note:  I can imagine this with jalapenos or poblano peppers, cilantro, cumin, and tomatoes baked in for a Tex-Mex version.  I think I will try that next time.