Aunt Sandy's Chicken Dish

Categories: Chicken/Poultry
Contributed by: Jacqueline&David

I love this dish. You can adjust the curry powder to less if you aren't into curry, but it lends a great flavor. This dish is wonderful over Uncle Ben's Wild Rice (original is the one we use.)

INGREDIENTS

2 boxes frozen chopped spinach (10 oz), thawed out completely (you can defrost in microwave or very lightly cook)
1 1/2 lbs (or so) boneless chicken
1 can cream of chicken (or celery or mushroom) soup
2/3 to 1 cup mayonnaise (I never use 1 cup, usually 2/3 to 3/4 cup at most. I usually use Helmann's light mayo.)
1 TBLS lemon juice (or more to taste)
pepper/salt to taste
curry powder to taste ( I can't recall exactly, but I think I use between 1 and 2 tsps? Maybe more? Taste test it lighter at first, then add more to taste as you like)

DIRECTIONS

After defrosting well or lightly cooking the spinach, squeeze *all* excess water you can get out of it. I find it helpful to press it with a fork while it is in a strainer, then roll the spinach in a wad of paper towels and wring it over the sink to get excess water out. Leaving too much water in will water down the flavor of the dish, so this is am important step!

In a small bowl, combine soup, mayo, lemon juice, s&p, and curry powder. Taste it and see if you need to add more of anything. The flavor will intensify a little during baking, but not a whole lot.

Cut up each chicken breast piece in half or if larger, make into 3 strips. Basically you are going for large chunks--not bite-sized. I recall that the recipe doesn't call for cutting them up at all, but with the oven I have the chicken doesn't seem to get done if I leave them whole. You can leave them whole, however, and see how it turns out.

Spray a casserole (such as an oval corningware-sized casserole, which is what we always use for this) with Pam (or grease lightly) then lay the spinach flat on the bottom, pressing down lightly with a fork. Next place raw chicken pieces on the spinach. Layer it evenly with the soup/mayo/spice mix. Make sure to spread the sauce mix over any portions where the chicken is poking through.
Bake at 375 (uncovered) for 30-40 min. (My aunt's recipe says 30-40, but I *think* I recall my dish needing at least 45? Could be my own oven nuances.) Sorry to be so vague!

If the top hasn't browned nicely by the time you are ready to take it out of the oven, you can put the broiler on for a minute or two to brown the top a little more, but watch carefully so it doesn't burn!