Continuing on my relatively new policy of attempting to make two (2) recipes per cookbook before I move on to the next, I handed my newly appointed chief taste-tester (well, besides yours truly) the not-so-weighty tome that is Pillsbury’s Bake Off Main Dish Cook Book (compliments of Disabled American Veterans) – yeah wait actually, what the heck does that mean?

---

Looking This Up Real Quick

So the short answer is Disabled American Veterans, or DAV, is a veteran’s organization that’s been around in some form for the past century, but in my lifetime not really one with a high Q-rating (does anyone say that anymore? Do I have any younger readers who can advise?).

---

A commemorative brick, eh…

This cookbook seems to be at the midpoint of the kind of fundraiser cookbooks I’ve covered here in the past and the more corporate branded cookbooks I’ve…also covered here in the past. Nowadays, DAV just has some schlocky store- wait, the kids would use ‘slop’ here, that on-trend usage I do know. But you know, the kind where they just slap your logo onto a bunch of generic merch.

---

John Ramirez has some pretty high standards for tiny flags

The reason I didn’t pursue this thread earlier is at no point in the cook book is this charitable collab mentioned outside of the cover. The publisher is listed as Pillsbury Publications, and the back of the index invites you to write to their Minneapolis address to purchase other products such as Pillsbury’s Bake Off Cookie Book, Pillsbury’s Bake Off Dessert Cook Book, Pillsbury’s Bake Off Breads Cook Book, Pillsbury’s Bake Off Cake Cook Book… you get the idea. Anyways.

---

Back To Cooking Casseroles

Thankfully, my taste-tester was a good sport and dutifully perused the many recipes for casseroles (and dishes arguably casserole-adjacent, if we’re honest. But hey, you have to fill out a whole cook book somehow. Nowadays this sort of broad definition could be used to generate mild controversy for Engagement to Feed the Algorithm or whatever.) The winner was Sunshine Chicken Casserole:

White grapes, raisins and spices make this
something special. A deliciously different cas-
serole ready in about an hour.

Why didn’t they just line break instead of hyphenate casserole? This copy editor demands answers.

This was definitely, squarely, a Casserole. It’s built on a condensed soup (Cream of Celery). It expects you have leftover cooked chicken. And it uses an ingredient I see everywhere in these late 60’s~early 80’s American cookbooks and nowhere else – pimientos.

---

Now we’re cookin’ (a casserole)

That isn’t to say it’s not a little unusual, however. The “spices” in question are mainly a pretty decent dash of cinnamon, and the flavor profiles as a whole seemed…odd. But not too weird for me not to try it. Plus, I did confirm my local grocery store carried one (1) jar of pimientos, so I could make a pretty reasonable attempt to replicate the recipe as written.

---

No Shortcuts Here

The day I decided to make the casserole, I made several mistakes. The first was not having leftover cooked chicken ready to go. Even worse, I didn’t even have defrosted chicken ready to go. So I spent a lot of time on Step 00 and Step 0. I tried to be efficient by multitasking and prepping everything else, but that likely worked against me, as I ended up overcooking the chicken. But hey, what better use for dry white meat than a casserole, right? Calculated or something.

I made the executive decision to halve the grapes, trying to take into account the Casserole Theory espoused earlier in the cookbook. I also decided to leave out the hardboiled eggs – one, that would add yet another prep step, as I’m not the kind of girl that has a bowl of hardboiled eggs sitting in her fridge, and two, I’m the kind of girl that doesn’t like hardboiled eggs. And my resident grocery shopper struck out on golden raisins, so I just used some old regular ones I found in the cupboard. I figured all these substitutions and omissions were fairly in line with the spirit of casseroles, even if I did want to try to stick to the recipe as much as possible so I could judge it as written.

---

Nothing says delicious dinnertime like a thick beige emulsion

As for the “spices”, I also omitted the cloves cuz there was barely any in the recipe to begin with, and I only had whole ones on my spice shelf. I replaced the celery seed in the drop biscuits with some month’s old desiccated thyme I found in the humidifier drawer. Oh, and I left out the added salt, because I never trust adding salt to recipes with condensed soups. You can always add more later.

Outside of the step zeros, everything did come together fairly quickly, but depending on the state of your pantry, there’s potentially quite a few step zeros, so, hmm. I used fresh grapes instead of canned, and I don’t know if canned ones come pre-halved. I’m also just slow with a knife. This recipe is at least the right yield for my go-to casserole dish, so that’s definitely a big point in its favor.

---

Let the Sunshine (Chicken) In

The verdict has been reached – this is a perfectly fine casserole. But it is strange. My taste-tester actually liked it so much he assumed I would make it again, and gave me advice to that effect. 

I think the key determiner of whether any given person would approve is the fact it’s sweet. Not like, cloyingly so, but the heavy amount of grapes and raisins, combined with the brown sugar, ends up being the main takeaway. For my taste-tester this was a big plus, but I can see how this would be potentially extremely off-putting to others.

I was curious to see how cream of celery soup tasted and the answer was “like nothing”. It’s shockingly neutral, even by condensed soup standards. Likely the lemon gelatin dessert mix of casseroles. To my dad, this wasn’t a bad thing, but for me, I really feel like cream of chicken would improve the overall flavor profile of the Goop Base. For sure, you can definitely safely add the additional salt listed.

The pimientos also tasted like nothing, although I’ve heard that’s typical of low-quality jarred ones. They did provide a nice pop of color, so I see the vision. Substituting these with chopped fresh bell pepper is prolly the 21st century way to go.

The drop biscuits also did their job. I went ahead and added the food coloring even, but I think the difference between an Instagram worthy presentation and not is just luck in how your goop bubbles up through the biscuits. If it sticks to the middle and doesn’t splatter outwards, you’re good. Otherwise, well. You can see how mine turned out.

---

I guess I could have more artfully placed my spoonfuls for optimal edge coverage…

It warmed up well the day after, although as you can imagine the biscuits suffered a bit in the microwave. Both of us were too lazy to use the oven, though.

The recipe is below, with a combination of my modifications I made at the time, and those I’d make in the future. 

---

Recipe

Yield – 6 servings (about enough for 3~4 people) 

Ingredient Notes

1. Original used cream of celery, but cream of chicken should be a safe play
2. Original specifies diced, but I feel shredding would eat better. Also, I think 2 heaping cups is the play here – I had prolly more like 1¾ and you had to hunt for the chicken…
3. You could prolly substitute this with yogurt or whatever
4. Pimientos are basically bell peppers, right?
5. You can omit this if you’re worried about the Sodium Levels
6. I left these out – don’t blame me if their inclusion makes it Too Weird 
7. Original used celery seed, which I didn’t have. I think any herb you like should work fine.

Retrieve a 2 quart casserole dish and plop in all the Goop Base ingredients, stirring to combine. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 400F oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prep the Drop Biscuits by mixing the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and herbs in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, stir the sour cream, egg, and food coloring until thoroughly combined. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined.

Remove casserole from oven and use a large spoon to drop biscuit dough around the outer edges. Stick back in the 400F oven uncovered for 20~25 more minutes, or until the biscuits have some color on them.