Crunchy Curry Chicken Casserole

So you know when you have leftover chicken and you don't know what to do with it, but you're craving something that involves X, Y and Z? Well that's this casserole. We had KFC on Sunday and had 2 giant chicken breasts and 2 legs leftover. I was craving mayonnaise, water chestnuts, and curry. This was the result of my cravings and what was in my fridge/pantry and some consulting of about 8 recipes online.

It was actually pretty darn good :) You can change the veggies (I think asparagus, green onion, mushrooms, celery, or broccoli would be good additions in it but they are all "scary" to my husband). Curry isn't overpowering as is, if you like curry you can increase it to 1/3 or 1/2 tsp, if you hate curry feel free to omit :) it was a "what the hell I will throw some curry in" decision. We like curry, I put it in my chicken pot pie.

It wasn't *that* bad for me, I used low fat mayo and soup and was better than eating the chicken with the skin on smothered in leftover mashed taters and gravy :)

Crunchy Curry Chicken Casserole

2-3 cups shredded cooked/leftover chicken
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 can cream of chicken soup (celery or mushroom would also work)
1 cup matchstick carrots
1 8oz can water chestnuts, drained
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried chives
2 tsp dried minced onion
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp soy sauce
1 bag of success brown rice, cooked and drained (I think 1 bag is about 2 cups cooked rice)

1/4 cup cashew pieces
1 cup chow mein noodles

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the first 12 ingredients in a bowl. Pour into a greased casserole dish (I think mine was an oval 2.5qt, a 7x11 pan or 9x13 would work too). Sprinkle cashew pieces and chow mein noodles over top. Bake @350 for about 30 minutes.

It's fairly thick as is, but I like it that way. If you think it's too thick you could add 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth.