What’s your favorite casserole recipe? I don’t make a lot of them, so my repetoire is pretty limited. Wanna share?
I love the concept of the casserole so much. But I’m not a fan of Cream of Mushroom soup, which seems to be the key ingredient in most.
I will be watching this thread for good ideas!
First off, I have to admit there is no one recipe for Glop. Glop is an ever-changing kaleidoscope of food, and flavors. Substitutions based upon what you have available, or can get cheap, are not only encouraged, but recommended. Glop may be made stove top or baked. This version is going to be a baked version, but feel free to adjust as you find suits your tastes.
You will need:
1 lb pasta (frilly is recommended, but any type will do)
1 lb ground beef
salt and pepper to taste
1 large green pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 - 2 cups shredded cheese (Cheddar blends work well, but most any kind will do.)
Pre-heat oven to 450 F
Begin by cooking a one pound box of pasta. I happen to like the frilly sorts that will grab onto the rest of the glop ingredients as they bake together, but feel free to choose what you have. Drain, and put into a large casserole dish.
Crush garlic clove. Sautee and then add the ground beef and brown it. Add salt and pepper to suit your tastes while browning the beef. Once the beef has been browned, drain off the excess fat, then add to the casserole dish.
Add oregano, thyme, and dill to the casserole dish. Mix well. Add in pepper, onion, and crushed tomatoes. Mix well again.
Cover and bake in oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove cover, top with cheese, bake an additional 5 to ten minutes, depending upon how gooey/crunchy you want your cheese.
Remove from oven and serve.
Makes about 8 servings.
If you reserve the cheese topping to add, instead, to the individual servings you can freeze the glop without any problems.
For variations, change the spices added, add in other veggies (glop can be a good way to make zucchini palatable), or change the meat used.
My kid loves this chicken casserole, one of the first things he learned to cook on his own.
Boneless skinless chicken
Frozen broccoli
cream of chicken soup*
shredded cheddar
stove-top stuffing mix
Amounts are scaled up or down depending on what you’ve got, how many you’re feeding, etc.
Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and brown in a pan with some garlic and a little oil. Drain and toss into the bottom of casserole dish.
Add one bag frozen chopped broccoli on top of chicken.
Dilute cream of chicken soup with a couple tablespoons of milk to make it spreadable, plop over broccoli/chicken mix.
Generously sprinkle cheese over that.
Make stuffing mix according to box directions, then spoon over top of casserole as a crust. Bake at 350 for a 30 to 45 minutes, depending on density of ingredients. It’s done when the top is nicely browned and the sauce you see burbling up is golden looking.
*for elbows 
Truly, you are too kind to me!
Basically, a casserole is made up of a lot of filler, some protein, some garnishes, and a sauce. Sometimes a vegetable is added (peas in tuna casserole, for instance) as well.
Fillers can be rice or potatoes or pasta or beans. The protein can be chicken or beef or just about any meat, or cheese, or a combination. Garnishes are things like fried onion bits, or crushed potato chips on top, or pimientos. If you learn to make a basic cream sauce, you can vary this according to your family’s individual tastes. I also note that there are more cream soups than just mushroom…cream of chicken, cream of celery (particularly good with tuna), cream of onion, cream of shrimp, cream of asparagus…the mind boggles.
Basically, you take protein leftovers and stretch them with fillers, make it tastier with garnishes, and bind it all with a cream sauce. Or put the garnish on top. It’s really like making a soup, you start out with a formula rather than a recipe.
I’m pretty sure that Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book (any of the various versions) has several casseroles. You can also find casserole recipes in those church cookbooks, where all the recipes are submitted by various church members.
Here’s what I do for tuna casserole:
2 cans tuna
Pasta (I like wagon wheels or bowties)
Vegall frozen veggies
1 can cream of celery soup
Cook pasta and veggies together. Drain, mix with the other two ingredients, heat until hot in the same pan, or put in oven, or nuke it, as the cook prefers. If the cook is desperate enough to make this, she’s too hot and tired to make a big deal of it. We don’t like cheese on fish, but you can certainly give it a try, if you want.
I don’t measure the pasta or veggies. It’s about the same amount of veggies as the regular sized can of Vegall, though.
The basic formula I use is some seared meat (don’t use expensive cuts for casseroles - it’s the cheap ones that really reward this style of cooking); fried onions/leeks & garlic; some veg that will keep its shape; possibly some filler ingredient; some other ingredients that will melt down a bit; and stuff that turns into a nice gravy/sauce. I’m not going to give quantities, but if your average size casserole pot is 3/4 filled, you’ll have enough to serve 4-6.
Seared meat
Jointed poultry
Sausages - I tend to twist round the middle to make 2 sausages out of each normal sized one. You can also cook them as normal and then cut into chunks.
Beef/pork/lamb chunks tossed in flour (the flour eventually thickens the gravy)
Meatier kinds of fish such as tuna & salmon cut into chunks
Veg that keeps its shape
Carrots
Parsnips
Peppers
Thickly cut courgettes/zucchini
Roughly cut cabbage
Potatoes
Optional filler mixed in
Rice/Pasta/Couscous/Pearl Barley
Beans/Pulses
Optional filler on top
Scones (for cobbler)
Toast spread with mustard (carbonnade)
Breadcrumbs (cassoulet)
Dumplings
Sliced or mashed potatoes (like cottage pie)
Melty veg
Tomatoes
Thinly cut courgettes/zucchini
Mushrooms
Sweetcorn (OK, these don’t melt as such but should be treated as if they do)
Gravy/Sauce
Stock that is complementary to your meat/fish
Wine
Beer
Cider
Fruit juice
Tomato puree to thicken
(Corn)flour to thicken
Herbs/Spices
Salt/pepper to taste
Sear the meat to brown all over. Put in casserole dish.
Fry the oniony ingredients with a bit of oil or butter in the same pan until just starting to brown.
Stir in the harder veg and cook for another couple of minutes.
Stir in the softer veg and transfer to the casserole dish.
Pour (at least some of) the stock/liquid into the pan to loosen any nice bits, and then pour into the casserole dish.
1 1/2 to 2 hrs at 180C/350F/Gas 4 should see you nicely. If you have the time, drop the temperature to 160C/325F/Gas 3 and give it 2 1/2 to 3 hrs instead
I don’t have a favourite, but I really like Pork, Mushroom & Barley done in ham stock and a bit of apple juice, and Sausage casserole with loads of beans, courgettes & tomatoes. There’s a huge amount of variety; you may want to try a few of the classics to get the feel of it - Coq au Vin, Boeuf en Daube, Beef Carbonnade, Lamb Cobbler, Irish Stew etc - once you’ve got the feel you can go exploring…
I’m not sure if this properly counts, no cream of anything or tomato products involved, but we bake and serve it in a casserole dish. So, with that caveat, I give you:
Chicken potato stuff
Preheat oven to 350 and lightly butter or non-stick spray a baking dish.
Peel 8-12 potatoes, slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Pile haphazardly into pan.
Place chicken pieces on top of potatoes. I prefer boneless thighs, for faster cooking time, bone-in works fine too. In between chicken pieces, lay a few pieces of thick cut bacon.
You may then season at will and park it in the oven until chicken is done and taters are tender. We like to use garlic jam plopped right onto the chicken, it sorta melts down and mixes with the meat juices to wonderfully flavor the potatoes.
Who’s got a good cabbage roll casserole recipe?
I like Sour Cream Noodle Bake from Pioneer Woman Cooks.
Another favorite that I bring to potlucks, etc. is King Ranch Chicken. There are a billion recipes for that one. The one I linked does not have Campbell’s Cream of Anything, but you can find a recipe for it that does if you google.
I can vouch for both of those. Although I think you usually can’t go wrong with Pioneer Woman recipes anyways. My wife does not like cottage cheese, so we substitute cream cheese and it is just as good.
My family’s version of King Ranch Chicken uses Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom soup along with a can of Ro-tel. Combined with some sauteed green pepper, onion, and cooked chicken chunks; layer with tortilla strips and cover in shredded cheese. Bake until bubbly. I suspect the Food network recipe tastes a little fresher. Either way it is good.
A good, basic casserole has four basic ingredients.
[ol][li]A protein. I like chicken. Use about 1 - 1/2 pounds, diced.[/li][li]A vegetable that will hold its shape. Greenbeans are good, or use a cup of frozen mixed veggies.[/li][li]An aromatic. Dice up a medium onion.[/li][li]A binder. This is the dreaded Cream of Mushroom soup, which I despise. I use 1 1/2 cup of mayo (Duke’s yellow label), or sour cream.[/ol][/li]Salt and pepper to taste. (1 t salt and 1/2 t pepper.)
Mix everything up in a large mixing bowl. Put it in a casserole dish, and bake at 350º for 45 minutes.
I like to mix mayo and sour cream together as a substitute for canned soup, gives a much fresher taste. Hint for elbows, though: just substitute another type of soup for the cream of mushroom. Any other “cream-of” soup will do in most recipes, just pick a flavor you like.
I love that you are all being so thoughtful, truly. But the truth is I’m just not a fan of cream based soups, celery, mushroom or otherwise. It triggers my gag reflex, seriously. I can choke back most anything, as say a guest in your home, except cream of anything soup, I just can’t do it.
So I am delighted with Maus Magill for pointing out that I could substitute sour cream or mayo. Brilliant idea!
I’m so revisiting every casserole recipe I have previously shunned.
Y’all rock! Thanks a ton!
This is so good you’ll put me in your will.
Cassoulet:
Allow 4 ounces of each of the following per serving:
Hot Italian sausage
Boneless, skinless chicken breast
Canned diced tomatoes, undrained
Canned white beans, undrained
Other ingredients:
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh rosemary, several sprigs
Salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper
French bread, sliced
Olive oil
Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil until it shimmers. Add the chicken and brown, then remove from the pan. Remove the casings from the sausages, break into pieces and add to the pan. Brown well. Return the chicken to the pan and add the garlic. Saute for one minute. Add the beans and tomatoes with their juices. Strip the rosemary from the stems and add to the pan. Cover and simmer for about a half hour to an hour. Top with ground pepper and serve with crostini, below.
Heat the broiler or barbeque grill. Brush olive oil on both sides of the bread and toast briefly. Serve with the cassoulet.
Ooooh, these sound good. And better yet, doable, which is equally important! I’m going to keep them all and try them out eventually.
Chefguy…I can leave you the '86 Buick (it almost runs) or a deaf cat. I’ll let you think on it before you decide. 
Tonight I’m going to make my mom’s old recipe for Tuna Pot Pie, because I have leftovers to make it:
Layer of cooked potatoes and onions (from yesterday’s soup)
Layer of tuna (from the pantry)
Some frozen peas and maybe carrots
Brothy milk/cheese/butter soup from yesterday’s soup over the top
and a pie crust over that.
(Can you tell I’m on a grocery budget?)
Hey, the SO just invented King Ranch Chicken last week!
He makes what we call “mexi-mess” fairly often. Which is some kind of meat, usually left-over, cooked up with a bunch of onion and peppers (whatever kind we have) and a few tomatoes and whatnot. Just plop it all in a skillet and let it cook for 30-45 minutes while you do other stuff. Stir it occasionally.
We usually make it like double-decker tostados (crispy corn tortillas, mexi-mess, beans, maybe some corn, garnishes (lettuce, tomato, onion, etc), cheese, sour cream, salsa).
Last week he layered it up in a casserole (chicken with peppers & onions & tomatoes, some collection of fresh veg that was in the frig, corn tortillas, a little sourcream, cheese) and baked it. It was terrif!
I’m sorry, but I’m still trying to imagine a casserole that ISN’T inexpensive. I thought that was the whole point of them.
Interesting! Never heard of that. Is the toast buttered or oiled?
Nope. You just very lightly toast the bread, spread both sides with mustard, cut into triangles and sort of nestle them slightly into the gravy with the pointy crust-free sides poke out. A bit like arranging a savoury bread & butter pudding. All the pictures I could find on the intertubes seem to use a layer of sliced baguette. But then, our family got the recipe out of a 1970’s series cookery partwork magazine unleashed on an England that was barely getting to grips with mayonnaise. Because me and my brother couldn’t cope with too much mustard at the time, my mother mixed it with some ketchup (unlike Calvin, we liked our sinuses). Still very nice - you get a magic mix of half soggy, half crisp deliciousness.
AB took a stab at casseroles.
AB? Dude, I look at your username and I think, “this is somebody who knows his or her way around Hot Dish,” but who is AB?