Mennonite Monday - Chicken Gumbo

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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Last week you voted for Chicken Gumbo (pg 149W) and this recipe turned out to be very good.  The best part is that you make it the night before and then leave it in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it. I cut the recipe in half, so that is why my pictures will be a little different than the actual recipe.

Chicken Gumbo 

9 slices bread

4 cups cooked chicken

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp salt

9 slices cheese

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup milk

1 cup chicken broth

2 cans cream of celery soup

Remove crust from bread and place bread in bottom of casserole.  Put chicken over bread.  Pour a mixture of eggs, milk, broth, mayonnaise and salt over chicken.  Then spread the soup undiluted over this and top with cheese slices.  Brown bread crusts in butter and sprinkle over the top.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Bake uncovered for 1 1/4 hour at 350 degrees.  Also good with turkey. 

 Four pieces of bread fit perfectly in a 9 x 9 pan. 

 Egg mixture.

 I cooked two chicken breasts for the recipe. 

 Pouring the egg/milk mixture. 

 I wasn't sure how to brown the bread crusts, so I put them on a baking sheet and poured the butter on top.  Then I put them in the oven until they were as brown as I wanted. 

 When I make this recipe again I will use a whole slice of bread to make bread crumbs in addition to the crust, because there weren't many bread crumbs. 

 Everything assembled and ready to go into the refrigerator overnight. 

The final product.  My cheese got a little long because I left it in the oven too long.