Shaker Chicken Pudding

5 from 2 votes

A warm and comforting casserole with apples, onions, and chicken its primary ingredients. Shaker Chicken Pudding is an Historic recipe, reimagined.

Prep Time20

Cook Time50

Total Time1 10

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Cost: $1.02 per serving

2 - 3 cups leftover white meat rotisserie or cooked chicken breasts diced into 1 x 1-inch cubes
1 cup apples diced, about 1 large or 2 medium-sized apples
1 cup sweet onion such as Vidalia rough chopped
1 cup celery chopped
4 ounces salted butter
4 ounces fresh pressed apple cider divided
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
pinch fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons flour
12 ounces cream may substitute whole milk
½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs may substitute homemade bread crumbs
½ cup panko breadcrumbs

Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare a baking dish by liberally greasing with 1 ounce of butter. Set aside.
In a medium non-stick sauté pan, gently sauté apples, onion, and celery in 2 ounces of the butter until soft. Add cider, nutmeg, salt and pepper. NOTE: you may either peel your apples or leave the skin on. I use two apples, peeling one and leaving the skin on the other.
Simmer on very low heat, covered, for 1/2 hour until the vegetables are very soft.
Melt the remaining 1 ounce of butter and add the flour to the melted butter. Whisk until the flour is incorporated.
To the pan of vegetables, add the flour mixture and the cream and bring to a boil. Allow to cook over high heat for 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken. Remove from the heat. Add chicken and stir.
In a medium bowl, combine the breadcrumbs with 2 ounces of melted butter. Stir to combine. NOTE: if using homemade bread crumbs, consider adding dried herbs to enhance their flavor such as oregano, basil, and marjoram.
Pour the chicken mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.
Bake for 20 minutes or until casserole bubbles. Serve over Spätzle, wide noodles, or rice.