I grew up watching my grandmother make these kinds of dishes from scratch in the kitchen on the farm. I can still picture her there, making everything with no shortcuts, because that's just how she always cooked. There were no packets of sauces, no shortcuts dressed up in flavor. Just real food made properly.

Chicken Tetrazzini Bake

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My grandma made everything from scratch on the farm, and this chicken tetrazzini was one of those dishes that turned up whenever there was leftover chicken and a house full of people to feed. It's a creamy, cheesy pasta bake loaded with chicken. Proper farmhouse comfort food, no fuss about it.

She would make this dish when there was leftover chicken, which is exactly how it worked on the farm. Nothing went to waste. Add mushrooms to balance out all that cream and cheese, then bake until golden and slightly crisp. Grandma used to add a dash of sherry for depth.

One mistake I've made myself in the past is over-baking it. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid in the oven, and it can become a bit mushy.

Artena 5.1 Quart Rectangular Ceramic Baking Dish

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Chicken Tetrazzini Bake

Print Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 55 minutes mins

Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

Method

Ingredients

  

• 12 ounces spaghetti
• 3 cups cooked chicken shredded
• 8 ounces mushrooms sliced
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry optional
• 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese shredded
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
2. Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente, drain and set aside.
3. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat and sauté mushrooms until tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle flour over mushrooms and stir for 1 minute, then gradually whisk in chicken broth and cream.
5. Add sherry, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and simmer until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.
6. Stir in 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese and half the Parmesan until melted and smooth.
7. Combine cooked spaghetti, chicken, peas, and sauce in the baking dish, mixing well.
8. Top with remaining cheddar and Parmesan cheese, then bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and bubbly.

King Ranch Chicken Layers

King Ranch Chicken is layers of tortilla, chicken, and a properly made sauce with cheese and bacon, all set together. The combination is delicious. Now, we actually don't know where the name comes from. It's not from the famous King Ranch in Texas. The connection has never been confirmed. It's one of those food mysteries nobody's solved.

The sauce comes from tomatoes and green chilies, which gives it more depth than a standard cream-based casserole. I like to let it rest for 10 minutes after pulling it from the oven. I just find that makes a real difference. I also tend to use thicker chicken cuts. That significantly reduces drying out without losing anything.

This dish needs the chicken cooked specifically for it. Don't try to shortcut that. And the cheese on top should get a good stretch going, but add it only toward the end of baking. Too early and it overcooks. The dish holds together a bit better than most casseroles, which helps when you're serving it.

Hamburger Potato Delight

Ground beef and potato baked together with cheese. It sounds straightforward, but the order in which you build it is what makes or breaks the dish. I like to use cream of mushroom soup because it acts as a binding sauce, adds moisture, and saves me from making a roux from scratch. I slice potatoes on a mandolin so they're uniform and cook evenly.

Make sure you choose a fattier ground beef, as it stays juicier. I just find that leaner beef can dry out under the heat. I like to add a layer of onions between the beef and the potato. That sweetens as it bakes and keeps the whole dish from tasting a bit flat.

Cheese goes on at the end, just enough time to melt through properly without overcooking before the rest catches up. Then I like to rest it for 10 minutes when it's out of the oven so it slices clean instead of falling apart on the plate. This is such a hearty one.

Bacon Cheeseburger Grilled Cheese

This one throws me back to when my brother and I would play all day outside on the farm, and then my grandma would call us in for this delicious toasted bacon cheeseburger sandwich. The patty is thin and cooked through before it goes anywhere near the bread. A thick patty throws off the whole build and gets a bit watery from the juices.

I like to use butter on the bread, not oil, because it gives it that proper golden crust that everyone's always after. Low and slow on the heat matters more than you'd think. If it's too hot, the bread turns before the cheese is melted through. I like to use two cheeses, sharp cheddar and more of a processed cheese, and they melt together instead of going oily.

Broccoli Chicken Crunch

I love this dish more for the texture, honestly, than the actual flavor. I like to use crushed crackers or fried onions on top, and I put those on toward the end so they stay crisp instead of going soft in the bake. Always blanch your broccoli first. Raw broccoli releases too much water and will water down the whole dish. You've got to make your sauce the right way, too.

If the sauce is too thin or runny, it won't hold everything together. The chicken should also be cooked and shredded or cubed beforehand. This is more of a family-and-crowd situation. I'm not cooking from raw on this one.

Always rest it after the oven, as it helps the sauce set so it doesn't run everywhere when you serve it. It's soft underneath with that crunchy top. Delicious every single time.

Turkey Noodle Comfort

This is the dish that traditionally turns up after a roast, and I like to use leftover turkey rather than cooking it specifically for this. Make this with a roux-based sauce, not cream alone; it holds up far better and won't separate or turn grainy when it's baked. I like to add some peas or any veg I can find in the fridge and stir them through for color and a bit of freshness. It just cuts through that richness.

The noodles should be slightly undercooked before they go in the oven. They'll finish cooking in there and absorb the sauce properly, so make sure you don't overcook them beforehand, or the whole dish will go to mush. I like to top this with cheese and breadcrumbs. It gives that texture on top with the saucy noodles underneath.

I think this is one of the better casseroles for using up odds and ends, whatever's left in the fridge after a big meal.

Chicken Enchilada Stack

This is an easy weekend casserole, stacked like lasagna, no rolling required, with tons of melted cheese, soft corn tortillas, and flavors that deepen overnight. Stacking instead of rolling is faster and means every bite gets equal sauce and cheese, so nothing is left dry in the middle. I use corn tortillas because they're traditional and hold the structure far better than flour ones.

A proper enchilada sauce made from scratch with real dried chiles and tomatoes makes the difference between something that tastes authentic and something that just tastes flat. I like to let this rest for 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven. It stops it from collapsing the second you try to serve it.

The cheese should be laid between every layer, not just on top. It gives that extra something, and it holds the stack together when you cut it. Serve it with a dollop of sour cream and some fresh cilantro on top.

Beefy Mac Cheese Mash

Modify mac and cheese with beef and mash for the ultimate comfort food, and a crowd-pleasing weeknight bake. The cheese sauce needs a roux base with butter cooked properly before anything else goes in, and that's what stops it from splitting or going grainy.

Make sure the pasta is slightly undercooked, because it keeps absorbing liquid as it sets and you don't want it to get mushy. The beef should be well browned and well drained. The extra fat makes the whole dish greasy rather than rich. I like to use a mix of cheeses because it gives a bit of flavor and a bit of melt. Sharp cheddar and then something softer for stretch, like a good amount of mozzarella.

This is more of a stovetop-to-table dish than a baked one. Seasoning matters more here than in most casseroles because there's no crusty topping doing extra work. The sauce has to carry it on its own. No baking or layering, just everything stirred together properly and taken to exactly what you want it to be.

Creamy Chicken Bacon Pasta

I find that whenever I make this creamy chicken bacon pasta, it's a crowd pleaser, and everyone always comes back for more. A few tips here: cook the pasta al dente, because this dish goes in the oven and the sauce moisture finishes it off, so fully cooked pasta turns mushy.

I find that the bacon smokiness comes from curing and rendering, and it infuses into the cream sauce, which gives it a delicious flavor. I like to use tube shapes or short ribbed pasta like penne, because the ridges hold the cream sauce so well. Smooth pasta like spaghetti or linguine doesn't really work in this dish.

Beef Tortellini Skillet

I find that this beef tortellini skillet, made with a proper sauce, comes together nicely and easily in one pan. I brown the beef first, then remove it from the pan and do the sauce separately. A lot of the flavor comes from cooking it this way. You can use fresh or frozen tortellini, since it cooks directly in the sauce and absorbs all that flavor as it cooks.

Make sure the sauce is saucy, more than you think it needs to be, because the tortellini soaks up the liquid as it finishes cooking. I normally add a handful of spinach at the end to add some color. This is one of the faster dishes in the skillet category because nothing goes in the oven. It's a stovetop, one-pan situation, made in under 30 minutes.

Tater Tot Shepherd’s Pie

Tater Tot Shepherd's Pie

This dish is a twist on the traditional shepherd's pie, where tater tots swap in for mashed potatoes, giving you that extra crunch on top and a sort of soft, creamy potato underneath. Make sure your meat and vegetable filling is properly seasoned and sufficiently reduced before the tots go on. A watery filling is what makes the tater tots soggy.

The pro tip here is that the tots should go on the hot filling straight from the freezer. That's what gives you the best contrast between crispy and soft. I like adding a thin layer of cheese underneath the tots, not on top. This helps bind everything together without losing the crunch on the surface.

The tots also need real oven heat at the end, not just warming through. I think that's what gets them properly golden and crusted rather than just hot. This is a lovely dish with crunch on the top and comfort underneath.

Green Bean Casserole Classic

This green bean casserole is such a classic. My grandma always served this at every holiday: Christmas and Easter. It never gets old: green beans, a creamy sauce, and something crispy on top.

The dish was actually invented by Campbell's in the 1950s as a way to sell condensed soup, and it's stayed almost completely unchanged since. Fresh green beans retain their texture and color far better than canned ones, even though canned beans are the traditional shortcut most people grew up with. That was a different way I used to eat it, and those beans were very overcooked by my grandfather's standards.

The sauce needs real depth, so mushrooms and a bit of garlic. I wouldn't go straight from the can if you want it tasting properly made. Then throw the crispy onions on at the very end of the baking, just long enough to warm through. If you add them any earlier, you lose the crunch completely.

You also want to blanch the beans before they go into the dish, because you don't want them releasing too much water and watering down the sauce. I find this is one of the few casseroles that's better slightly underdone than overdone.

Tuna Noodle Retro Bake

This tuna noodle dish is proper retro. It has its roots in 1950s American convenience cooking, when canned tuna and condensed soup made a hot dinner in under an hour. Make sure your noodles go in slightly undercooked, because they keep cooking in the sauce and the oven, and the last thing you want is a mushy bake.

I always make a sauce from scratch. I find this gives it real depth, with onion and a bit of mustard. Then I add some peas for color and a bit of sweetness, because the sauce is really rich. I then use breadcrumbs or crushed crackers on top, and I put those on at the end of the baking so they stay crispy.

Make sure you get all the liquid out of the tuna. Too much liquid and the whole sauce goes thin.

Cheesy Beef Enchilada Casserole

This casserole is a tried-and-true grandma-style comfort dish with seasoned beef, corn tortillas, and a cheddar-Monterey Jack cheese blend. Layering instead of rolling individual enchiladas saves so much time without losing anything, so everybody still gets their sauce, cheese, and beef.

I find that corn tortillas hold their shape better than flour tortillas. The flour tends to go gummy under the sauce, which some people prefer, but corn holds up. The sauce needs real depth from chiles, so make them properly rather than from a jar. That's the difference between authentic and flat.

I like to well-brown the beef and fully season it before it goes in. Cheese between every layer, not just on top, holds the whole thing together when you cut it. And definitely rest it for 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven. If you don't, it all slides onto the plate. A well-loved classic.

Hash Brown Sausage Casserole

This hash brown sausage casserole works just as well for breakfast as it does for dinner. It uses frozen hash browns for a crispy top crust, bulk breakfast sausage browned first, and then sour cream as the sauce.

I tend to use frozen shredded hash browns because they have less moisture than fresh-grated ones and produce less steam. Fresh potatoes need to be squeezed or parboiled to accomplish that, though you can make it from scratch if you'd prefer.

Browning the sausage first gives it that delicious flavor and depth, not just texture. I find if you skip this step, the casserole ends up tasting a bit flat. The classic shortcut version uses condensed soup, but I use sour cream. It's much richer, tangier, and it doesn't taste as processed.

I sometimes eat this with a poached egg for breakfast during holiday mornings, because it can be assembled the night before and baked fresh. This one was definitely one of my grandmother's recipes.