Baked Swiss Chicken

The week before Thanksgiving and I have been cooking since Monday. The cranberry sauce is done. The brining liquid for the turkey is ready—I brine it forty-eight hours now, not the twenty-four-hour brine I used in the early years, because I have learned that longer means more of what you want, which is flavor and moisture in every bite rather than a dry Thanksgiving-disaster bird. The cornbread for the dressing is drying on the counter. The yams are peeled and waiting in a bowl of cold water. The house smells like preparation, which is its own particular smell—not the smell of food cooking, which is the smell of arrival, but the smell of food getting ready to cook, which is the smell of anticipation, of the good thing on its way.

CJ called from Huntsville Wednesday evening to say he was leaving early Thursday morning and would be here by ten. He said he had something to tell me when he got here. I said, "Calvin Junior, is it good news?" He said, "Mama, it's good news." I said, "Then save it for Thursday, tell it at the table, and let it be the right kind of Thanksgiving surprise." He laughed. He said okay. I do not know what it is. I have theories—it has been a year since I met Travis at my table, and this is the Simms pattern: you come to the table for one Thanksgiving and the next Thanksgiving you have news—but I do not know. I will find out Thursday. Until Thursday I will cook. That is the whole project.

I called James in Montgomery Tuesday and he said he and his daughter—his eldest, Tanesha—were driving up for Thanksgiving, which means the table is larger than I planned, which means more chicken, which means exactly what I always want, which is a table so full it requires adding a leaf and everyone sitting close and the food going around and coming back and nothing left over, because a Thanksgiving with leftovers is a Thanksgiving that was planned too modestly and Bernice Simms never planned modestly in her life and neither do I.

When James called and the headcount went up, I did not panic — I pulled out the baking dish. This Baked Swiss Chicken is the kind of recipe Bernice Simms would have recognized: simple enough to run alongside a full holiday spread, rich enough to hold its own at a table that has had the leaf put in. If CJ is bringing the news I think he’s bringing, and Tanesha is at the table for the first time, and the food is going around and coming back the way it should — this is what abundance looks like in a nine-by-thirteen pan.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 50 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 8

Ingredients

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
8 slices Swiss cheese
1 can (10.5 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups seasoned stuffing mix (such as Pepperidge Farm)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Season and arrange the chicken. Pat chicken breasts dry and season both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Lay them in a single layer in the prepared baking dish.
Add the cheese. Lay one slice of Swiss cheese over each chicken breast, covering it as evenly as possible.
Mix the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream of chicken soup, white wine (or broth), and sour cream until smooth. Spoon the mixture evenly over the cheese-topped chicken.
Top with stuffing. Scatter the dry stuffing mix in an even layer over the sauce. Drizzle the melted butter over the top so the stuffing can toast and crisp as it bakes.
Bake uncovered. Place the dish in the preheated oven and bake, uncovered, for 45–50 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through (internal temperature of 165°F), the sauce is bubbling around the edges, and the stuffing topping is golden brown.
Rest and serve. Let the dish rest for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon the sauce from the pan over each portion when plating.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Swiss Chicken — When the Table Gets Bigger, You Make More