This dish is a keeper and a definite comfort food. Don't let the fat content scare you off - it can easily be altered. I made it with reduced fat Ritz crackers, 98% fat free soup, light sour cream and half the butter and it still came out great! (but not low-fat)
I noticed that some reviewers thought this was somewhat lacking in flavor, so I sprinkled the chicken with basil, oregano and garlic powder and browned it before adding water and simmering it for about 15 minutes. I prepared the chicken the night before while making dinner so I could have cooked, chopped chicken all ready to go.
As suggested by another reviewer, I stirred the chicken, soup and sour cream together in a bowl before putting it in the casserole dish.
Serve with bread and some steamed veggies.
it won't be dry if you add 1 stick melted butter and 1/2 cup milk to the soup/sour cream mixture; it'll have more flavor is you use either a whole chicken or 3 or 4 chicken breasts with the bone and skin and put a bay leaf or two in while you're boiling your chicken; also add poppyseeds to the soup and sour cream mixture instead of to the crust.
This is an excellent dish and so easy to make. In my opinion, one teaspoon of poppy seeds hardly qualifies that ingredient to make it in the dish's title... so I used about 4 tablespoons! Simply wonderful.
I read several reviews before preparing this and took them all into consideration and this was the BEST Poppy Seed Chicken ever! I browned the chicken before simmering it in chicken broth for 15 minutes which gave it tons of flavor. I also sauteed onion and celery as a previous reviewer suggested and added it to the cream of chicken and sour cream mixture. I added 2 tablespoons poppy seeds and combined the mixture and the chopped chicken. The rest was as the recipe stated. I poured it all in an 8x8 Pyrex, put the crumbs on top, sprinkled a bit more poppy seeds on the crumbs, and lastly drizzled melted butter over the top. It was soooo rich, I don't see how anyone can claim there's no flavor! :)
I love this dish. I use 2 cups of sour cream (16 oz carton) instead of one for more sauce. I saute some chopped celery and onions in a little butter first then mix everything together pour it in a pan and top with the cracker mixture. I like this with broccoli wild rice and dinner rolls. Reheats nice too.
I'd give it a 5 but I save that for the "OMG is this fantastic or what?" recipes. It's really good. I have a 5 year old son that's practically a vegetarian and HE ATE IT! I have a 4 year old that's a carnivore of course she ate it. A 14 year old that can be picky @ times and HE loved it. But here's the make or break it reviewer. The hubby who basically likes hunks of beef and not much more. We tried this recipe when daddy was out of town on business it made plenty so we had it the next day. (Daddy was home by then). I can't believe Dad ate leftovers casserole style chicken and liked it. Thanks for the recipe.
This is really good! I added sauteed onions garlic & celery and some fresh parsley. Also added a lot more poppyseeds.;) Thanks for the recipe!
This is a huge hit at our house and never lasts long!
Loved this- used Pacific foods condensed soup (all natural and much better than the alternative) light sour cream and I cut the butter amount in half. Still delish and very rich and SO GOOD!! Served with steamed brown rice.