This recipe is originally from a Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Recipe book from over 30 years ago. Who knew they put together recipe books? I sure didn’t until my mother-in-law told me about this recipe. My husband loved it growing up and it is super simple so I’m glad she gave me a copy!
It is fantastic for an easy weeknight dinner, especially served with a salad and garlic bread. I make this when I can’t figure out what I want to make and/or don’t have the time nor want to make the effort to figure out what I should make for dinner. Ha! I usually always have the ingredients on hand or in the freezer so it’s a fantastic last-minute, backup meal for us. It’s also super affordable since it doesn’t use too many fancy, expensive ingredients. Of course, you can always use organic vegetables, chicken, and homemade tomato soup if you wanted to make it healthier and just a little pricier!
Like all of my recipes, I always change something up. I don’t use a whole chicken fryer like the recipe says. Instead, I use two or three chicken breasts sliced lengthwise and then chopped in half. My husband is not fond of meat with bones in it that he has to cut around or eat around. It’s too much work, apparently. It makes it easier for me to cut up for the kids anyway so I just use boneless chicken breasts.
I also just guesstimate the amount of green pepper and onion since I don’t feel like measuring it out. Lazy, I know! The original recipe also states ½ chopped green onion and ½ chopped green pepper so I’m not exactly sure if that’s supposed to be half of one stalk of green onion or a ½ cup so I just use about ½ cup of each. Half of a green pepper is usually about half of a cup anyway. Maybe they wrote recipes different back in the 80’s? Who knows?!
In addition, I don’t put 1 tablespoon of pepper like the original recipe calls for. That is a LOT of pepper and it made it SUPER spicy the first time I made this. Yeah, not doing that again! I use maybe a teaspoon. I also use regular sea salt instead of seasoned salt since I don’t have seasoned salt. I also sub fresh/frozen mushrooms for the canned mushrooms since I prefer to not use canned items and I have never even bought canned mushrooms anyway. This is one of the few recipes I make though that I actually use canned tomato soup. I have tried making tomato soup homemade before but it wasn’t successful. One of these days, I will try again but today is not that day, ha!
Enjoy! Let me know if you try it and how it turns out. This meal is super affordable and usually lasts us 2 meals. The kids love it too!
Nina’s Little Red Hen
1 fryer, cut into parts or 2-3 chicken breasts, cut lengthwise and/or in half
½ chopped green pepper
½ chopped green onion
1 can tomato soup
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. seasoned salt
1 Tsp. pepper
¼ cup vinegar
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 6 oz. can mushrooms or ½ cup mushrooms, chopped
Preheat oven to 325° F. Place chicken in casserole pan.
Combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour over chicken.
Bake for 45 min-1 hour or until chicken is done.
Serve over rice!
Recipe adapted from Cathy Jodet in the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Cookbook.
