Chicken Noodle Hot Dish

We were hungry for another casserole last night. I decided to try my hand at chicken and noodles. The result was pretty tasty. I looked at about 25 recipes for chicken and noodles and I based my own recipe on the better parts of each.

Chicken Noodle Hot Dish

2 bone in chicken breasts
1 t thyme
1 t basil
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 stalks celery, chopped up
1 green pepper, diced
4 oz jar of pimentos
1 leek, sliced up
1 can cream of mushroom soup (Lutheran Binder)
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cups of reserved broth from chicken
1 pound noodles (I used spaghetti)
2 cups cheddar cheese

Boil the chicken breasts in a pot holding enough water to cook the noodles. Add the thyme, basil and bay leaves to the water. You will need to boil it about 45 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked. Remove the chicken from the pot to cool. Reserve 2 cups of liquid from the pot. Boil the noodles in the chicken broth you just created. You are looking for noodles that are al dente.

Briefly saute the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic. Pick the chicken from the bones. Dump 1 cup of the cheddar cheese into a baking pan. Dump in the rest of the ingredients. Add the 2 cups of the reserved chicken broth. Top with the remaining cheddar cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 until everything is thickened up, bubbling and the cheese is melted. It will take at least 1/2 hour.