By Jolene is five months pregnant. She and Travis came for Sunday dinner and Jolene is showing — the particular glow and roundness of a woman who is making a person, which is the most ambitious construction project any human can undertake and which makes my house-framing look like a hobby. Jolene ate two plates of pot roast and said "The baby wanted seconds." Travis said "The baby has your appetite and my metabolism." Jolene said "The baby is going to be perfect." She's right. The baby will be perfect because the baby will be a Hensley, and Hensleys are many things but imperfect is not one of them. Stubborn, yes. Quiet, yes. Emotionally constipated, absolutely. But imperfect? Never. Our flaws are features.
The pot roast was Clay's. He made it for the Sunday dinner — his recipe now, the one he learned last year, eighty-eight percent. He served it to Travis and Jolene and Connie and me with the quiet pride of a man who has been cooking for his family for a year and is no longer the student presenting an assignment but the cook presenting a meal. The shift is complete. Clay cooks. Not "Clay is learning to cook." Clay cooks. Present tense. Active voice. Subject-verb. Done.
After dinner, Travis asked me about the baby's name. They're considering names. "We want to name it after family," Travis said. "If it's a boy." He didn't say which family member. He didn't need to. I looked at him and he looked at me and we both knew: Earl. If it's a boy, the name is Earl. Earl Thomas Hensley, the coal miner who went into the mountain every morning and came out every evening and died at sixty-two of black lung and whose name is on a headstone in Evarts and whose grandson wants to put it on a birth certificate because names are how the dead live in the living and Earl deserves to live.
I didn't cry. I stared at the ceiling and said "That's a good name." Travis said "Yeah." Connie squeezed my hand under the table. Clay, from the kitchen where he was washing dishes, said "Earl was a good man." He never met Earl. Earl died eight years before Clay was old enough to remember. But Clay knows Earl through the recipes, through the stories, through the grave he visits with me every Father's Day. Clay knows Earl the way all Hensleys know Earl: through the food that Betty made for him and the silence he left behind and the name that will soon, if the baby is a boy, live again in a new body in a new century.
Clay made a pot roast that Sunday, but this Almond Chicken Casserole is the dish that lives in the same spirit—the warm, unhurried kind of cooking you do when feeding people you love is the whole point of the evening. If you’re at the point Clay is at, where the recipe belongs to you now and not the other way around, this is the casserole that rewards that confidence. Make it for a table full of people. Let someone ask for seconds. Let the baby want thirds.
Almond Chicken Casserole
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
- 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 cup sliced almonds, divided
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttery round crackers (such as Ritz), crushed
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray or butter.
- Mix the filling. In a large bowl, stir together the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, mayonnaise, and chicken broth until smooth. Add the shredded chicken, celery, onion, 3/4 cup of the sliced almonds, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Fold until evenly combined.
- Transfer to dish. Spread the chicken mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish. Scatter the shredded cheddar cheese over the top.
- Make the topping. In a small bowl, toss the crushed crackers with the melted butter until coated. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup sliced almonds. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the cheese layer.
- Bake. Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes, until the casserole is bubbling at the edges and the topping is deep golden brown.
- Rest and serve. Let the casserole rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve straight from the dish at the table.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 520 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 32g | Carbs: 19g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 740mg