Mommys of American easy winter cooking, #1: Creamed chicken with peas

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Thursday, January 11. 2024

Mommys of American easy winter cooking, #1: Creamed chicken with peas

Moms show their love for their families by cooking, especially those gooey, bland, rib-sticking comfort foods in the winter. They make everybody feel loved, and they're all in Fanny Farmer's cookbook if you have one around.

Mommys of America winter foods are cheap and easy to make. Cheaper than McDonald's, but probably less "healthy" than McDonald's. Whatever "healthy" means.

Here's a classic Mommys of America dish, Creamed Chicken with Peas, best (I think) on top of white rice but it works on toast, mashed taters, and egg noodles. Lots of ground pepper on top.

For one extra Mom point, serve it on Basmati rice. For two extra points, on a brioche. For three extra Mom points, use the pheasant Dad shot instead of chicken because she deserves it for marrying a guy who goes out and shoots the family's food.

Got any favorite Mommys of America dishes? This is first of a sentimental, anti-gourmet, re-posted series.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 14:11 | Comments (24) | Trackbacks (0)

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This is also a great way to prepare squirrel!

#1 SmartDogs (Link) on 2013-01-02 17:55 (Reply)

The casserole - the classic that we all had as kids which would cover everything from tuna to hamburg to...well whatever was left over. Mix with egg noodles, a little cheesy crust and blamo - instant comfort food.

Nom, nom, nom.

#2 Tom Francis on 2013-01-02 20:17 (Reply)

Still have some leftover Damn Yankee gumbo from new years eve to finish off for lunch. And then it's cider pork and apple kraut leftovers for dinner tonight. Nothing new til Saturday.
Creamed chicken and peas sounds sublime.

#3 Jewel (Link) on 2013-01-03 02:15 (Reply)

Similar to creamed chicken: chicken pot pie, made with leftovers from roast chicken dinner. If you don't have homemade gravy left for the sauce, make a basic white sauce, but add garlic and a tiny bit of nutmeg and lashings of fresh ground pepper, plus sauteed sweet onions (in butter), and frozen baby peas and slivers of baby carrots (better than standard frozen peas n carrots) and bake in storebought roll out pie crust. I have a heavy hand with pastry, and know my limitations...

#4 retriever on 2013-01-03 06:24 (Reply)

Oh, yeah! Chicken pot pie. I'm not above buying the frozen variety at the store, or even the excellent version sold at KFC.

I'm partial to Ro-Tel tomato casserole, too: ground beef, onions, a can of Ro-Tel, corn, and noodles.

#4.1 Texan99 (Link) on 2013-01-03 11:26 (Reply)

We didn't eat creamed chicken, but my mother did make creamed ham, with a little onion and chopped green pepper, which we would eat over mashed potatoes or toast. Still a tasty dish.

#5 D on 2013-01-03 07:01 (Reply)

my dad raised beef and we had creamed hamburger over biscuits my mom made, sometimes day old biscuits, my dad called it the same thing as the Navy that he was in called it......SOS.

#5.1 post*tenebras*lux on 2013-01-03 08:10 (Reply)

My mother could make great chicken ala king and several other creamy chicken dishes.
Recently my son asked me to make a chicken pot pie. Now how hard could that be? I read a LOT of recipes, none sounded appetizing. I asked a number of women/men who are good cooks, in their sixties, and NONE had ever made a chicken pot pie (how odd is that!).
My experiment was an abysmal failure. God bless my husband and son, they ate it and complimented me on it (they are kind souls). My daughter-in-law, who is a good cook, tried to tell me everything I did incorrectly, but I just don't think I will get the hang of this dish. Pizza anyone?

#6 J on 2013-01-03 09:44 (Reply)

Try this, #6......get a box of Chicken stock-not broth- and the veg you want in it-to me it is the classic carrots, peas, and potatoes; sometimes I put in celery as well.
Par boil the veg, you want it kinda 'toothy' still. I do it in the stock. Get yourself a premade pie crust and blind bake it for about 9 minutes @350. Make your rue, add in the stock and keep it thinnish, add the veg and chicken and parcel out into the pre-baked crusts. Strip or full cover your top, and then bake it until golden brown.
I generally use no salt when I cook so don't think the omission is recipe based!!
Enjoy!

#6.1 NJ Mike on 2013-02-15 13:49 (Reply)

I'm perfectly capable of making my own pastry and white sauce but I take the lazy woman's way out with chicken pot pie.

Cut up cooked chicken or turkey--you can use a rotisserie chicken if you like. Mix with a can of cream of chicken soup and some frozen peas and carrots. Bake in a store-bought pie crust. (I agree that if you want top and bottom crust, it's a good idea to blind bake the bottom first.)

It's a favorite way of using leftover poultry and always a family pleaser.

#6.2 T Migratorious on 2024-01-11 17:53 (Reply)

I have been making creamed tuna and peas on toast since the 1970s and he still likes it. lol!

#7 pbird on 2013-01-03 09:46 (Reply)

Tuna casserole and a chicken cream/cheese, lots of cheese casserole are some of our family faves this time of year.

#8 phil g on 2013-01-03 10:44 (Reply)

Does anybody else remember Swedish meat balls? They were regular meat balls but served in a sour cream sauce instead of a tomato sauce. My mother used to make them, nothing fancy, we weren't Swedish or anything, it was just a truly delicious recipe in the 1950's that seems to have gone out of style.

I also notice that peas, which are delicious, have virtually disappeared as a vegetable, and we ate them all the time growing up. I guess it's too much trouble nowadays to shell them. There were also something called shell beans, which were like peas, except they were purple and white, and you had to shell them, too.

#9 Park Slope Pubby on 2013-01-03 13:19 (Reply)

My mother and grandmother WERE Swedish and never made the meatballs in a cream sauce. They fried them and served them with the pan gravy, usually with creamed or mashed potatoes. With Swedish coffee bread for dessert. Mmmm, cardamon, cinnamon and pearl sugar on top.

#9.1 AWhite on 2013-01-03 16:56 (Reply)

Spinach linguini with Alfredo sauce and paper thin pepperoncini w nutmeg.

Crockpot Pulled Pork w BBQ sauce

Pot Roast w Campbell's Mushroom Soup plus a package of real mushrooms, chopped onion, bag of baby carrots. Bake Russet Idahos separately in oven during last of two hours cooking.

Shredded Cabbage and sliced Kielbasa w dill seed and onion and an apple chopped w half a pound of grated sharp cheddar. Bake at 250 for a hour and a half w no liquid in enameled casserole. Serve w crusty dark rye bread and unsalted butte

Can you tell I'm on a diet from all this food pron?

#10 Retriever on 2013-01-03 13:24 (Reply)

Well, your menu sounds like it has a bit of flavor, unlike all this "I'd need sunglasses to eat stuff this white" food everyone's crowing about.

I was raised on bland food, but got over it when my crazy Uncle Sam shipped me off to Texas. Now my comfort food is cheese enchiladas in red chili sauce.

#10.1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2024-01-11 21:32 (Reply)

I make this with chicken, putting mashed potatoes made with butter and cream on top, then peas finished with butter and cream (pour off the water when almost done, add cream, butter, salt and pepper to taste then bring back to boiling). Just spoon the peas and butter/cream mixture over the mashed potatoes and chicken. Mmmmmm mmmmmm.

#11 KF on 2013-01-03 18:50 (Reply)

Creamed chipped beef on toast. Yummy! Had some this morning.

#12 Stargazer on 2024-01-11 14:23 (Reply)

Corn beef and white gravy on toast = SOS.

#13 rocdoctom on 2024-01-11 14:47 (Reply)

Mom didn't make creamed chicken, but we had other dishes quite often. Tuna noodle casserole, of course, and something she called cheese crumb casserole. Consisted of old dried stale bread, ripped up into pieces, mixed with cubes of Velveeta and maybe milk in a casserole dish and topped with some slices of bacon. Hated it at the time, but it actually sounds pretty good now.

#14 Pod Hamp on 2024-01-11 18:54 (Reply)

My mom earned extra points by serving this in little puff pastry cups. Haven't thought of it in ages, thanks for the delicious memories.

#15 Poboy on 2024-01-11 20:05 (Reply)

Martha's Company Casserole, first published in the 1958 Good Housekeeping Casserole book.

We often make this when new people move into the neighborhood as a housewarmer, or for church potluck dinners. People rave about it. My mom used to throw one together every month or so, because it was easy and it tasted great. It tastes even better as a warmed-up leftover.

You wouldn't think it, to look at the ingredient list, but it's one of those dishes where the taste is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. I use butter and 85% lean beef, and nothing low-fat.

https://blondieandco.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/vintage-recipe-thursday-marthas-company-casserole.html

#16 Aggie on 2024-01-11 22:23 (Reply)

bad link for recipe

#17 peter on 2024-01-12 12:12 (Reply)

Wayback machine has it.
Wayback Machine: Creamed Chicken with Peas

#17.1 Gringo on 2024-01-12 19:45 (Reply)

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Thursday, January 11. 2024

Mommys of American easy winter cooking, #1: Creamed chicken with peas