Chicken Chow Mein Casserole

​Chicken Chow Mein Casserole

Ingredients: 
2 large raw chicken breasts, diced
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil 
1 large carrot, sliced
1 small onion, diced
1 small zucchini, sliced
2-3 celery stalks, sliced
2 teaspoons garlic, minced 
1 Tablespoon Soy sauce plus 1 teaspoon *divided
4 Tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
Dash toasted sesame oil
Dash hot chili oil, optional**
Salt & Pepper
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup chicken broth

​Serve Over: Steamed Rice 
Topped With: LaChoy Chow Mein Noodles (I used half of a large 12oz bag) 

Directions: 
   Preheat oven to 350F. 

• Wash and cut up all the vegetables.
• Saute vegetables in a saucepan with butter and olive oil. 
• Salt & pepper vegetables and cook about 5-7 minutes. 
• The final 2 minutes, stir in garlic and *1 teaspoon of soy sauce to vegetable mixture. 
• While the vegetables are par-cooking, cut your your raw chicken into 1" diced pieces. Lightly salt and pepper chicken.  Set Aside. 
• In the bottom of a large 9x13 casserole dish place the condensed soup, chicken broth, add in remaining soy along with the hoisin, rice vinegar, sesame oil and hot chili oil. 
• Add in the raw chicken, water chestnuts and parcooked vegetables. Stir until everything is coated in the sauce. 
• Bake in the oven 35 minutes.
• Add Crispy Chow Mein Noodles on top of casserole dish and bake a final 10 minutes. 

​Kitchen Note:  While Hoisin Sauce and Rice Vinegar are easier to find in your local supermarkets nowadays - **Hot Chili Oil may not be - you can sub with red pepper flakes, sriarcha sauce or hot sauce of your choice. (you can also omit the hot sauce) What I like about Chinese Hot Chili Oil is that it has a heat and a burn but, the burn goes away rather fast (not like say - a jalapeno!) which is why I keep the oil on hand...