Cooking with Keisha: Chicken Asparagus Gratin

As I was wandering the super market a few days ago I noticed Cream of Asparagus soup...I've never heard of it before to be honest.  I'm a HUGE fan of asparagus so I decided to check out the can.  On the back I found a recipe for Ham Asparagus Gratin.

 

Seemed simple and inexpensive enough to make:

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Asparagus Soup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked cut asparagus
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked ham
2 1/4 cups corkscrew-shaped pasta (rotini), cooked and drain
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese or Swiss cheese

1. Stir soup, milk, onion powder, black pepper, asparagus, ham, pasta, and 1/2 cup cheese in 2-qt shallow baking dish
2. Bake at 400*F. 25 min. or until ham mixture is hot and bubbling.  Stir ham mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
3. Bake 5 min.or until cheese is melted

I of course am not a huge pork fan so I substituted chicken. I figured chicken and asparagus go well together so why not.

Here is my (non chef) variation:

Didn't seem to be enough...I like sauce...but after adding milk it was better

Asparagus is one of my favorites.
I chopped the asparagus before cooking it to see if it would be easier- turned out okay :o)

 I am proud of myself! Two pots going at one time and no mishaps!

(I don't multitask well)

My chicken cheers for the Buckeyes I see!

Since the oven was heating to 400*F for the dish I baked my chicken breasts for about 20 minutes, flipping once

I didn't allow it to cook all the way through.

I was afraid of it overcooking during the baking of the entire dish.

On the left half I followed the recipe as far as cubing the meat and mixing it in with the pasta and asparagus.

On the right I laid the chicken on top of the pasta mixture to see what that would turn out like.

I also didn't put the cheese throughout the mixture because I wasn't sure if I would like it.  The bottom chicken breast does have chicken.

I took the dish out 10 minutes before time.

Cheese was crunchy but it's good lol.

Other variations that I did:

• I used more than the listed amount of noodles.  I was too lazy to do the math so I just used the entire bottle.
• I also used two cans of the soup.  One didn't seem to be enough- even if I had used the correct amount of noodles.
• I also added milk until it was creamy

I did sneak a couple of noodles and it seems yummy. I have yet to try to chicken but I'm sure it is going to be yummy.

I have actually been cleaning my apartment head to toe for the past five or so hours so while I have this productive streak I want to finish before I take a break to eat because I'm sure I won't feel like cleaning after!

Toodles!