Nonni's Family Night Casserole (2024)

By: Nancy Tamburini-Neal

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Nonni's Family Night Casserole

By: Nancy Tamburini-Neal

This is one of those comforting chicken and sausage recipes that will fill your family up with minimal effort on your part. You'll want to make Nonni's Family Night Casserole on a weekly basis from now on. Bake some biscuits on top, and it will taste exactly like an old-fashioned chicken pot pie with a couple of extras. The creamy base of this dish makes it hearty and will help you stay warm on chilly days. Make this delicious chicken casserole recipe a traditional family dinner in your household!

Notes

I grew up with lots of wonderful food - Italian, Azorian and French. Both of my parents worked, and mom was the queen of good, easy-to-make meals. We lived on the West coast, and frequently ordered linguica and salame from Neto's Sausage Co. This is a variation of one of mom's recipes, so it's also a "comfort" food for me. I used to make this (or some variation) at least once every week or two. As you can see, this is a very flexible recipe!

This recipe was submitted as part of the Swiss Diamond One Pot Wonder Recipe Contest.

Serves8

Preparation Time15 min

Cooking MethodCasserole, Oven

Ingredients

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 pound linguica (or some other seasoned, cured or smoked rope sausage)
1 medium Idaho potato (or whatever other potato you have in your pantry)
1 medium onion
1 cup carrot (canned, frozen or fresh)
1 cup sweet peas (canned, frozen or fresh)
1 package cream cheese, softened
1 can cream of broccoli soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
Salt and pepper, to taste.
Optional: other seasonings, white wine or Madeira, refrigerated biscuits

Instructions

Turn on your oven to preheat it to 375 degrees F. Get out your Dutch oven and heat it up over medium heat. Once it's hot, put in just a little bit of olive oil to coat the bottom.
Dice the chicken breasts and put them into the Dutch oven to brown lightly. Then, slice the linguica (or other sausage) into about 1/8 inch slices and add it into the Dutch oven to brown lightly. Dice the onion and mix it into the Dutch oven. Meanwhile, dice that potato and add it to the mix. If you are using fresh carrots, this is where you also would dice and add those. Let these ingredients cook just a few minutes to soften them slightly.
If you like cooking with wine, add about 1/4 cup of dry white or Madeira. Now, add the cream of broccoli soup, the cream of chicken soup, and the softened cream cheese. If you really like veggies, you could add a cup each of corn and green beans, too!
Mix all of this well, adding just a little more salt and pepper. If you like other seasonings, you also could add just a little garlic, pepper flakes, etc. Use seasonings you and your family like. It doesn't take much, as the sausage adds quite a bit of flavor.
Next, mix it all really well, cover it, stick it into the oven, and let it cook for about 45 minutes.
About 35 minutes in, pop open a can of biscuits, separate them, put them on top of the mixture, and let this continue to cook until the biscuits are done!