Scalloped Chicken

September 2019. The cold has settled into Memphis the way grief settles into a family — not violently, but persistently, a presence that changes the texture of every day. I am 60 and still walking my mail route through Midtown Memphis, and the week was a winter week, which means the cooking was warmer, the house was smaller, and the people I love were closer.

The week\'s main current was week after naomi's birth. Marcus and Angela are settling into the life they are building together — the house in Whitehaven, the routines of marriage, the daily practice of showing up for each other that I told Marcus about and that he is learning the way all men learn it: slowly, imperfectly, with the determination that love provides and that pride demands. Angela is part of the Johnson family now, not by title but by action, by presence, by the way she moves through our house as if the walls recognize her.

I cooked this week the way I cook every week: with intention, with the ingredients at hand, and with the understanding that food made in a home kitchen for people you love is fundamentally different from food made anywhere else. The recipe doesn\'t matter as much as the hands that make it and the table that receives it. I stood at my stove or sat beside my smoker and I made casseroles and meals for new parents, and the making was the medicine, and the eating was the communion, and the cleaning up afterward was the humility that every cook needs — the reminder that the meal is over but the feeding continues, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Rosetta came to the porch as the last light faded and said something simple — \'Good day, Earl\' or \'What a week\' or just my name, the way she says it when she means everything and says nothing. And I said something simple back, or said nothing, and we sat in the amber glow of the porch light and let the week dissolve into the night, and the night was kind, and the morning would come, and there would be coffee and the route and the smoker and the family and the life that is, despite everything, despite the grief and the knee and the changing world, a good life. A full life. A life measured in smoke.

When Naomi came into the world and Marcus and Angela were still finding their feet, I didn’t want to bring them something complicated — I wanted to bring them something that would hold them. Scalloped chicken is that dish for me: creamy, filling, the kind of thing you pull out of the oven and the whole room exhales. It’s what my hands reach for when someone I love needs feeding more than they need impressing, and that week in September, with a new baby in Whitehaven and a daughter-in-law who was becoming more family by the day, this was the only dish that made sense.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 cups cooked chicken, cubed or shredded
2 cups chicken broth
1 can (10.5 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 cups seasoned stuffing cubes or croutons
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Make the sauce. In a large bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and milk until smooth. Stir in the diced onion, sliced celery, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and paprika.
Add the chicken. Fold the cooked, cubed chicken into the sauce mixture until evenly coated. Pour into the prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer.
Prepare the topping. In a medium bowl, toss the stuffing cubes with melted butter until coated. Scatter the buttered stuffing evenly over the chicken mixture, then sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese over the top.
Bake uncovered. Place the dish in the preheated oven and bake for 45–55 minutes, until the filling is bubbling around the edges and the cheese on top is golden and lightly browned.
Rest and serve. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5–10 minutes before serving. Pairs well with a simple green salad or steamed green beans.

Nutrition (per serving)

Scalloped Chicken — The Casserole That Carries a Family Through