Sep 09, 2007
I'm generally a little reluctant to use canned cream-of-whatever soup because of the sodium, fat, preservatives, etc., but for a recipe that's good enough I can be swayed. This one is good enough. First of all, the recipe cuts in half quite neatly, and will then fit in an 8x8 dish, which is completely reasonable for two people and provides a satisfying amount of leftovers. I used pre-cooked chicken and swapped half of the mayo for sour cream (a trick I've done before and liked in other recipes); I also used frozen green beans defrosted in the microwave, and jarred mushrooms. (Which, by the way, I won't repeat: the texture is awful. Next time I'll saute fresh shrooms instead, and will thus avoid having to pick them out of the finished product.) I used fire-roasted veggie Kashi crackers because they were what I had, but I don't think I'd do that again, either; the taste was too strong. I thought the curry was perfect. It's not really enough that the recipe could be called "curried;" if you know it's there, you can taste it, but if you don't, it just sort of enhances the chicken flavor. I think next time I might use corkscrew pasta; the rigatoni was good, but corkscrews would catch all of the sauce. And, finally, instead of parsley, I used chopped scallions on top. I served it with a salad with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing; the sweet-tart dressing cut the creaminess of the casserole nicely. All in all, a great, easy recipe that I'll make again.
—ZeldaSayre
