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Your Ass is Going to Get Really Huge Casserole

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Recipes
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I know you’re supposed to include a picture with a recipe but since 3/4 of the pan in gone…well…who really wants to see a picture of that?

I make mean Bacon Corn Chowder.  That stuff is so good that I’ve been known to stand by my the stove and drink the broth.  The only problem is that I end up with a ton of chowder and not enough freezer space freeze the leftovers.

When all of the ice hit a couple of weeks ago, we ended up with a lot of groceries from my in-laws fridge and freezer since they lost power for an extended period of time.  I’ve been making “interesting “concoctions with what we have just so that we can use it up before it all goes bad.

One of the things that we acquired was a big ole bag of hash brown potatoes.  After about a day of thinking it over, I came up with a modified recipe for the Bacon Corn Chowder that is cooked in the oven instead of in a stock pot.

Keep in mind that the only time that I measure things is when I’m making a new recipe that I’ve never made before.  So, I don’t have exact amounts for you.

Your Ass is Going to Get Really Huge Casserole:

1 bag frozen shredded hash browns-size doesn’t matter since everything is proportional

3 chicken breasts

garlic powder

onion powder-use fresh if you have it.

dried thyme-use fresh if you have it.

frozen corn

4 slices thick bacon

heavy cream

kosher salt

cracked black pepper

Use a casserole dish deep enough that your hash browns will all fit with about a 1/2 inch to spare.  I think I used a 9×13” pan.  Dump in your frozen hash browns and break up any chunks.  Liberally sprinkle with garlic powder and onion powder.  If you’re using fresh onion then you’ll want to a really small dice.  You want the ratio of potato to onion to be 5:1.  Also add your thyme.  You should add enough thyme so that it’s evenly distributed throughout the dish.

Dump frozen corn in the dish so that the potato to corn ratio is 3:1.  You want the main ingredient to be potato.

Take your three chicken breasts and cut them into small cubes.  If your chicken breasts are a tiny bit frozen then they’re much easier to cut in uniform cubes.  Brown the cubes in a skillet until they’re cooked through and just starting to brown.  Make sure that you salt them while they’re cooking.  Dump the chicken into the casserole dish.

In the same pan that you cooked the chicken [cause why dirty another skillet] place four or five strips of thick cut bacon.  Fry the bacon until crisp.  Remove the bacon and crumble. Don’t drain the bacon grease.  Toss the bacon into the casserole dish with everything else and give it a good stir.

Grab your heavy cream and pour some in the skillet with the bacon grease.  Heat the cream so that it’s pretty warm to the touch but don’t boil it.  Scrape the skillet with a wide wooden spoon to get everything off of the bottom and into the cream.  Pour the cream over the mess in the casserole dish.  The cream should be just barely visible in the pan and the entire mixture should be moist but not soupy.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Put the casserole dish in an oven preheated to 400 degrees and bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes on the top are just starting to brown and everything is bubbly.  Let it hang out on the stove for about 15 minutes so that it can set up as much as it’s going to.  We still had to eat the stuff in a bowl so it didn’t set up as much as a quiche but it definitely gets thicker.

Enjoy with some yeast rolls and try not to think about yourself getting fatter with each bite.