Meat. Cheese. And potatoes. In a casserole.
The ingredients in this casserole might remind you of a certain “bowl” at a major fast food chain.
What You Will Need
Popcorn chicken, brown gravy mix, cream of chicken, potatoes, milk, sour cream, salt, pepper, corn, and cheddar cheese are the only ingredients you need for this easy and delicious recipe. You will need a large pot to cook your potatoes in, a saucepan to make your gravy, a baking sheet for your popcorn chicken, and a casserole dish to bake everything in.
Step by Step Instructions
First, peel and dice your potatoes. Add to a pot of boiling water and cook until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes. While the mashed potatoes are cooking, cook your popcorn chicken according to package directions. While your potatoes are boiling and your popcorn chicken is baking, work on your gravy. In a saucepan, combine your brown gravy mix with one can of cream of chicken soup and then fill up half of that can with water and add it to the saucepan. Wisk together on low heat until heated through.
Once your potatoes are fork tender, drain the water and mash. Add butter, sour cream, and milk until desired consistency. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
Your mashed potatoes, gravy, and popcorn chicken should all be cooked and ready about the same time. Now it’s time to assemble everything in a 9×13 baking dish. First layer- mashed potatoes.
Next layer- popcorn chicken.
Dump a bag of frozen corn on top of that.
Pour brown gravy on top of that.
Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes until heated through. Broil on high a couple minutes to get the cheese melted and gooey. Enjoy!
Tips & Advice
To save money and/or make this cheaper, you could use instant mashed potatoes. My husband and I ate so much instant mashed potatoes when we were dirt poor that I have no desire to ever eat instant mashed potatoes again in my life. But it would make this recipe easier I will give it that! I have also tried using off-brand popcorn chicken because the name-brand stuff is pretty expensive. But, unfortunately the expensive name-brand tastes astronomically better. Darn it!
You may have noticed I didn’t follow the instructions on my brown gravy mix packet. My “trick” is I add a can of cream of chicken and half a can of water to a brown gravy mix packet instead of just water. This is a very simple trick to make that gravy taste so much better!
Speaking of gravy, my husband and I both love our gravy so I actually double the gravy amount for this recipe (2 packets, 2 cans of cream of chicken, 1 can of water) when I make this and the casserole is swimming in gravy (to our delight). However, I only did 1 packet of gravy for this recipe post because I assume normal people would just want the amount that one packet yields. If you want your casserole swimming, double the gravy amount like me. We’ll jump off the diving board into the gravy with you.
I have gone back and forth between making this in casserole form, and leaving all the ingredients cooked and separate and allowing people to build their own bowls with the ingredients. I like the build your own bowls because people can do as much or as little (or none) of each ingredient to fit their taste buds. But with a casserole, I can do a quick clean up of the kitchen while the casserole bakes and I am left with less of a mess at the end of the meal. Which is a pretty strong pro with this particular meal since I eat about 3 bowls of it and am absolutely miserably happy every time. The last thing I want to do is face the dishes at that point. My husband prefers this in casserole form because it’s less work than assembling your own bowls. The choice is yours!
I highly recommend buying a block of cheddar cheese and shredding the cheese yourself rather than buying pre-shredded cheese. This is a very simple thing you can do to make this taste even better!
Printable Recipe
Mashed Potatoes & Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 (24 oz) bag popcorn chicken
- 16 oz bag frozen corn
- 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Mashed Potatoes
- 3 lbs russet potatoes (approximately 10 small-medium)
- Butter to taste
- Sour cream to taste
- Milk to taste
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Brown Gravy
- 1 packet brown gravy mix
- 1 can cream of chicken
- 1/2 can water (using empty can of cream of chicken)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven according to popcorn chicken package directions.
- Peel and dice your potatoes. Add to a pot of boiling water and cook until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes.
- While the mashed potatoes are cooking, cook your popcorn chicken according to package directions.
- While your potatoes are boiling and your popcorn chicken is baking, work on your gravy. In a saucepan, combine your brown gravy mix with one can of cream of chicken soup and then fill up half of that can with water and add it to the saucepan. Wisk together on low heat until heated through.
- Once your potatoes are fork tender, drain the water and mash. Add butter, sour cream, and milk until desired consistency. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
- Assemble ingredients in a 9×13 baking pan in this order- mashed potatoes, popcorn chicken, corn, brown gravy, and shredded cheese.
- Bake in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes until heated through. Broil on high a couple minutes to get the cheese melted and gooey. Enjoy!
Notes
- See “Tips & Advice” section of my blog post for helpful info!
This sounds easy and makes me hungry. And I totally agree with you about gravy amounts! I’ve only had that “major fast food chain” item once, we don’t have one of their locations near us now.
I have made a lot of “copycat” recipes from our favorite restaurants and 100% of the time it has tasted better when I made it at home! Particularly with fast food restaurant “recipes”.