Chicken With Chipped Beef

The dish served most often at Sunday lunches in New England. Chicken with chipped beef is a classic New England meal, though it isn’t hard to find it served in the Midwest and other parts of the country as well. The recipe likely traces back to the time when people would go hunting on Saturday and have this meal with their families on Sunday.

Chicken, Bacon, and Dried Beef Casserole

Prep:20 mins

Cook:2 hrs

Total:2 hrs 20 mins

Servings:8 servings

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
288	Calories
10g	Fat
3g	Carbs
43g	Protein

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)SAVE RECIPE

In this simple recipe, chicken breasts are baked in a casserole with bacon, dried beef, and a creamy sour cream sauce. This flavorful and popular chicken dish is perfect for a busy day and keeps well if you want some leftovers. It’s always a bonus to be able to cook once and eat twice.

This recipe requires a lot of familiar ingredients, some of them shortcuts such as condensed soup, but one of them may be totally new to you, such as dried beef. This, like the soup, is a convenience item that when combined with the other ingredients, brings dinner to the table much more easily. This baked chicken and dried beef is a bit of a comfort food recipe, but then again, what casserole isn’t?

A dish as hearty as this needs little else to make it great, but hot cooked rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes work well and soak up some of the flavorful juices. A vegetable side dish of steamed broccoli, green beans, or a simple tossed salad helps to round it out.

Ingredients

• 8 strips bacon
• 8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 ounce jarred dried beef, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Steps to Make It

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1. Gather the ingredients and heat the oven to 300 F/150 C/Gas 2.
2. Wrap 1 strip of bacon around a chicken breast half. Repeat with the remaining halves.
3. Line a large, lightly buttered casserole or baking dish with the dried beef.
4. Place the 8 chicken breast halves on the chipped beef in the casserole dish.
5. In a bowl, stir together the sour cream and soup until well blended; pour over the chicken.
6. Sprinkle lightly with freshly ground black pepper.
7. Bake slowly, at 300 F for 2 hours, or until chicken is cooked and bacon is crispy.
8. Serve and enjoy.

Tip

Resist the urge to salt this recipe until it’s already cooked. The bacon and dried beef contain salt, and the condensed soup may as well. It’s hard to fix a dish that’s been oversalted, whereas it’s easy to add more salt if need be.

How to Store and Freeze Chicken, Bacon, and Dried Beef Casserole

This casserole will keep in the fridge for about three days, as long as it’s covered well. Reheat in a low oven (300 F) for 15 to 20 minutes until it’s hot all the way through.

You can freeze this in a well-wrapped dish for up to three months. To reheat, cover the top loosely with foil and put it into a 350 F oven, frozen, for about an hour or so.

Recipe Variations

• Instead of dried beef, roll a thin slice of ham around each chicken breast, then wrap the bacon strip around the ham. Pour the soup and sour cream mixture over the rolls, sprinkle with pepper, and bake following the instructions above. 
• You can also use prosciutto around the chicken instead of bacon if you prefer.
• The chicken may also be baked at 350 F/180 C/Gas 4 for about 1 1/2 hours.
• This recipe can be made with chicken thighs instead of breasts.

CROCK POT CONTINENTAL CHICKEN – A SLOW COOKER CHICKEN BACON SOUR CREAM RECIPE

Crock Pot Continental Chicken takes the classic party chicken with cream of mushroom of times past and converts it to slow cooking. With bacon, dried beef and sour cream, this chicken recipe is a winner for dinner.

As I’ve looked through old cookbooks through the years, I’ve seen recipes for Continental Chicken quite often. I’ve always been intrigued because the recipe looks so unique yet so simple.

Essentially, old fashioned continental chicken is a bacon wrapped chicken breast that gets cooked over dried beef with a sour cream and cream of mushroom soup sauce on top.

CROCK POT CONTINENTAL CHICKEN

The recipe I finally chose for Continental Chicken with dried beef comes from a cookbook – Teachers’ Culinary Treasures – circa 1979.

I just have to say that the original recipe writer was quite ahead of her time seeing how she included instructions for both oven baked continental chicken and slow cooker continental chicken. Both recipes can be found in this post.

INGREDIENT LIST FOR SLOW COOKER CONTINENTAL CHICKEN

Chicken Breasts

Dried Beef

Bacon

Sour Cream

Flour

Cream of Mushroom Soup

CREAM OF MUSHROOM PARTY CHICKEN

Why is this recipe called party chicken? Back in the day, this continental chicken dish with dried beef was an easy option for company or when having a party.

I’d have to agree on how easy it is. Wrap up your chicken breasts in some bacon, layer it over some dried beef, and then make an easy sauce of sour cream and cream of mushroom soup.

It doesn’t take much effort, yet the result is unique and tasty.

HOW TO MAKE CONTINENTAL CHICKEN WITH DRIED BEEF IN THE CROCK POT

For the full ingredient amounts and recipe steps for slow cooker chicken bacon sour cream, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

1. Layer dried beef on the bottom of a crock pot that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  A regular crock pot or casserole crock pot will work.
2. Wrap each piece of chicken with 1 – 2 pieces of bacon. Arrange in the crock pot over the dried beef.
3. In a small bowl, mix sour cream and flour until smooth. Take the sour cream mixture and combine with cream of mushroom soup.
4. Pour sauce over chicken.
5. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hour or high for 3-4 hours depending on the size of your chicken breasts. You want your chicken breasts to be at 165 degrees F when tested with a meat thermometer.
6. Serve over buttered noodles or cooked rice.

NOTES ABOUT CROCK POT CONTINENTAL CHICKEN WITH DRIED BEEF

• The cooking time will be dependent on the size of the chicken breasts you use. For larger breasts, it will take on the longer end of the cooking spectrum, and vice versa with smaller chicken tenderloins. Cook them to 165 degrees F internal temperature.
• Use as much or as little bacon as you want. More is more, right?
• To lighten things up, use low fat sour cream and cream of mushroom soup.
• I like to use the small packages of beef from the refrigerated section as opposed to the jars of dried beef. It’s more economical.

HOW TO MAKE BAKED CONTINENTAL CHICKEN

Looking to make old fashioned continental chicken in the oven? Follow these easy instructions.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Arrange one (2 oz.) package of dried beef on the bottom of the dish.
3. Wrap 6 – 8 chicken breasts with bacon, one to two pieces of bacon each to cover. Arrange on top of the dried beef.
4. Mix 1/4 cup sour cream with 1/4 cup flour. Stir in one can of cream of mushroom soup. Pour over bacon wrapped chicken breasts.
5. Cover in foil, and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
6. Serve over buttered noodles or white rice.