If you are working your way through your pantry like we are, chances are you’ve got some canned chicken on the shelves. If you liked our canned tuna recipes then here are a couple of canned chicken recipes you will enjoy too.

Canned Chicken Is Good

While we love using fresh ingredients, at times like these it may not be possible. That doesn’t mean we can’t make some absolutely tummy warming and delicious recipes with canned chicken, frozen or canned vegetables, and other pantry staples. We’ve done it many times and these canned chicken recipes always satisfy. If you’re watching your sodium, just rinse the ingredients so you can get rid of some of the extra salt.

Use What You Have And What You Like

Because we know that what you have in your fridge or freezer and on your pantry shelves may be different than what we have, feel free to substitute different ingredients of a similar nature for the ones we have used here. For example, we’re using frozen mixed vegetables in our chicken cornbread casserole because that’s what we have in our freezer. If you have frozen peas or green beans or corn use those. If you have canned veggies, they work great too. We’re using a little fresh diced onion because we have some left. If you don’t you can use dried minced onions or onion powder or just leave it out. Same for any spices. Anything goes these days, so don’t worry about it.

Chicken And Cornbread Casserole

Ingredients

4-5 cups of crumbled cornbread (If you’re looking for a cornbread recipe, try our easy Homemade Cornbread Recipe)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (canned or other veggies are okay too)
1 can (10 ounce) canned chicken, drained (if you like more chicken or are feeding a crowd, add another can)
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock or broth or vegetable broth (can also use diluted bullion or if you don’t have any use water)
2 Tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or other cheese you might have or like)

Directions

Grease a 13 x 9 casserole baking dish with oil, butter, or non-stick spray.
Preheat the oven  to 375 degrees F

1.  Melt the oil or butter in a skillet the sauté onions and celery until soft (about 4 minutes)
2. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (1 to 2 minutes)
3. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated. Add milk and stock, broth or water, alternating. Stir until mixture begins to thicken. You can also use 1 can of condensed creamy soup (mushroom, chicken, celery) and milk if you want.
5. Add canned chicken and combine.
6. Add 1 cup of cornbread crumbs to vegetable and canned chicken mixture, combine, and pour into greased pan.
7. Top with the rest of the cornbread crumbs and top cornbread crumbs with shredded cheese.
8. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until topping is bubbly and brown.

Canned Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 can (10 ounce) canned chicken
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup small diced onion (you can substitute 1 Tablespoon dry minced onion)
2/3 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 Tablespoons mayonnaise (we use light mayo) to the consistency of your choice
2 slices bread (or you can stuff it into a tomato or put on a green salad)

Some people also like to add diced apple, grapes, or dried cranberries. Others like chopped pickles or  just plain mayo. It’s up to you!

Directions

1. Drain the canned chicken and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Add all the other ingredients and blend thoroughly.
3. Place a good amount of canned chicken mixture on one slice of bread and top with the other slice. If you want you can toast the bread, add lettuce and tomato, avocado, spinach, sprouts or whatever you like. If you’re staying away from bread, stuff it into a tomato or serve on a green salad. Goes great with a little ranch dressing too!

Canned Chicken Melt

Ingredients

Same as above for Canned Chicken Salad plus:

2 slices cheddar cheese
4 slices of your favorite toasting bread
Softened butter for toasting bread

Directions

After you have made the canned chicken salad mixture as described above, do the following:

1. Place pan on stove and heat to medium.
2. Butter two slices of bread on one side.
3. Place bread butter sides down on the pan.
4. Put chicken mixture on one piece of bread and sliced cheese on the other side.
5. Cook on medium until bread is toasty golden and cheese begins to melt.
6. Flip the cheese toast on top of the canned chicken toast to make a sandwich.
7. If necessary, cook a little longer until the desired doneness on each side.
8. Repeat for the second sandwich.

Great to serve with pickles, coleslaw or side salad, chips, or a cup of soup. You’ll feel like you’re at your favorite deli – only better!

Canned Chicken Noodle Casserole

Ingredients

8 ounces of pasta (we like whole wheat, but you can use whatever you like or have)
2 Tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 Tablespoon butter for topping
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed (canned is okay too)
1-2 large ribs celery
1 can (10 ounces) canned chicken, drained (if you like more chicken or are feeding a crowd, add another can)
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (canned or jarred is okay)
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock or broth or vegetable broth (can also use diluted bullion or if you don’t have any use water)
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs (can use regular breadcrumbs, cornflake crumbs, or smashed up potato chips or crackers if you like – buttery style crackers like Ritz are great too)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or other cheese you might have or like)

Directions

Grease a 13 x 9 casserole baking dish with oil, butter, or non-stick spray.
Preheat the oven  to 375 degrees F

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions for al dente (usually about 8-10 minutes)
2. Meanwhile, melt the oil or butter in a skillet sauté onions and celery until soft (about 4 minutes)
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (1 to 2 minutes)
4. Put sliced mushrooms into the mix and stir until liquid evaporates. If you are using soup add now and skip the following step.
5. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated. Add milk and stock, broth or water, alternating. Stir until mixture begins to thicken.
6. Add chicken and combine.
7. If using crumbs, melt 1 Tablespoon of butter and mix into crumbs.
8. Add peas and pasta to vegetable mixture, combine, and pour into greased pan.
9. Top with buttered crumbs and top crumbs with shredded cheese.
10. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until topping is bubbly and brown.

Other Tasty Canned Chicken Recipes

You can use the basic filling recipe for the casserole without the noodles to make a variety of other dishes. If you have a pie crust or puff pastry, add whatever vegetables you like to your canned chicken casserole filling. Top with the crust and bake yourself a canned chicken pot pie.

Or mix your canned chicken with a little sour cream or yogurt and garlic and use the dough to make tasty empanadas.

We hope you enjoy these simple and versatile canned chicken recipes. We’ll continue publishing recipes using pantry staples to provide you with ideas for food that you can make at home while we all wait for the coronavirus to pass. Let us know if you have any other ingredients you’d like to use in your pantry cooking.

For a few other pantry cooking recipe ideas try our Lemon Pasta,  Easy Chili, and Garlic Mushroom Pita Pizza.  You can add a little canned chicken to these recipes too!

These recipes are delicious anytime, so keep them handy for whenever you like!

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Baked Italian rice balls taste great and are easy to make. These days, we may be using rice more often. Which also means we probably are looking for leftover rice recipes. Based on the concept of traditional Italian arancini balls, which use risotto, our recipe can use whatever rice you have around. Also, rather than frying in oil, these are like baked arancini because we cook them in the oven.

“Oven Fried”

Oven baking still gives a great crispy crust. We use similar techniques to make other “oven-fried” foods like chicken. There are a couple of tips we can provide to make sure your Italian rice balls come out crispy on the outside, chewy and gooey on the inside.

Many Baked Arancini Options

Also, typical arancini balls may contain cheese with meat or vegetables in the center. You can do that as well. For our recipe, we mix the cheese in with the rice so the whole inside is chewy and cheesy. We’re creating a simple version here that uses cheese and herbs. But you could add spinach, cook chopped vegetables, ground meat, or sausage as well. The principle is the same. If you want to make them Greek style, add some chopped Kalamata olives and green onions. For French try a little watercress, lemon, and Herbs de Provence.

Italian Rice Balls Sauce Is Fun

We also use our favorite marinara sauce for dipping. You can use any sauce for dipping. Ranch dressing might be fun. You can also vary the herbs, so while we’re making an Italian version you can use this as a jumping-off point to create your own leftover rice recipes by using different spice combinations and sauces. Thai, Indian, Greek, Spanish, and others would all work well.

Baked Italian Rice Balls

You can use whatever rice you have for these and any tasty melty cheese.

Ingredients

1 cup cooked rice, (keep the rice moist and warm to use)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup flour
2/3  cup Panko breadcrumbs, regular breadcrumbs, mixed with cornflake crumbs or cracker crumbs – whatever small crumbs you have will work
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, fresh if you have. or 1 Tablespoon dried
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Optional: You can add other ingredients as you like such as caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, etc.
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 large egg, beaten, can add 1-2 Tablespoons water, cream, half and half or milk
salt and pepper to taste

Plus 1 egg to blend in rice.
Sauce for dipping or pouring over your Italian rice balls

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Set out 3 individual plates or low, flat bowls. Place flour, beaten egg, and crumbs each with its own plate or bowl.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine rice, mozzarella, Parmesan, herbs, one egg and salt and pepper, mixing well. If you’re adding meat, spinach, veggies, you can put them in the center and wrap around with rice mixture or blend all together as you prefer.

4. Take up a meatball size amount of mixture and roll in your hand to form Italian rice balls the size you like. We make them around  2 inches. You can make them smaller if they’re going to be baked arancini appetizers or a snack.
5. Roll the balls in the flour, egg, then breadcrumbs, in that order. Make sure you cover them entirely with each ingredient.6. Place Italian rice balls on a greased or nonstick sprayed baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees F for about 8-10 minutes until you can see them browning. Timing depends on your oven and the size of your Italian rice balls.
7. Turn over and bake for another 7-8 minutes or until all golden brown.

Italian Rice Balls Tips

Tip: If you like them to be quite golden, spray nonstick spray on the top side of the Italian rice balls as well as spraying the pan. That will start the process of browning on all sides.

If your rice balls are not holding together add some flour a little at a time to bind with the egg and make the rice stick.

If you like your arancini balls saucy, you can mix a little of your marinara sauce in the rice mixture. When you break it open, you will already have a bit of that tomato sauce goodness inside.

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Are you staying at home to avoid the Coronavirus? Or maybe you’re just looking for some tasty ways to use that old pantry favorite canned tuna. Either way, we’ve got a couple of tasty ideas that we love for an easy, healthy, satisfying meal at home.

Canned tuna recipes can be as simple or complex as you like. We are all about quick and easy with good flavor. Canned tuna provides valuable nutrition, so it’s great to include just about anytime. And, if you find yourself in the future with a little bit more in your pantry than you anticipated when the Coronavirus hopefully is discussed in the past tense, these canned tuna recipes will make mealtime fun and help clear the pantry at the same time.

We’ll provide you with the basics for these canned tuna recipes. But feel free to make them your own. Add spices you like, garnish with veggies, pickles, olives, and more. Whatever sounds good to you will probably work great with the canned tuna. We just want to give you some idea starters to get your own creative juices flowing.

Tasty Canned Tuna Burgers

We love burgers and its great to have an alternative to beef. This is one of our favorite canned tuna recipes to use when you’re ready for a hearty dish that you can make in a flash. You can make these into smaller patties for sliders or create regular sized burgers, whatever you prefer.

Ingredients

1 (5 ounce) can of tuna packed in water. We use low sodium tuna.
1/2 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup small diced onion (you can substitute 1 Tablespoon dry minced onion)
2/3 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1 Tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten
2 Tablespoons olive oil for cooking

Directions

1. Drain the canned tuna and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Add all of the ingredients except the egg and blend together.
3. Salt and pepper to taste
4. Add the egg and blend into the mixture completely
5. Place 1 Tablespoon of oil into a pan and heat at medium-high until water droplet placed in pan sizzles.
6. Form burgers out of the mixture, flatten and place in pan. You can make sliders to get about 6 patties or 4 regular size burgers.
7. Place as many patties into the pan as you can without crowding. Cook until the outside gets crispy golden, about 5 minutes. Then flip and cook the other side until likewise crisp and golden. Add the other Tablespoon of oil into the pan and when it sizzles cook the remaining patties.

You can serve these on a lettuce and tomato salad, julienne veggies with olives and pickles, on slider or regular burger buns. Anything goes! Dress with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, chili sauce, or as you would your regular burger. Or serve them plain with a squeeze of lemon. It’s really up to you!

Terrific Canned Tuna Melt

These canned tuna melts are one of our favorite treats especially when someone isn’t feeling well. Tuna melts have all the flavor of an indulgent crispy toasted sandwich with your favorite cheese. But keeping with our canned tuna recipes motif, the nutritional benefits of the tuna shine through here too. Of course, you can dress this up any way you like. If you want to add lettuce and tomato, just place them on before putting the two sides of each sandwich together.

Ingredients

1 (5 ounce) can of tuna packed in water. We use low sodium tuna.
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup small diced onion (you can substitute 1 Tablespoon dry minced onion)
2/3 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 Tablespoons mayonnaise (we use light mayo) to the consistency of your choice
2 slices cheddar cheese
4 slices of your favorite toasting bread (we love rye or sourdough for canned tuna recipes)
Softened butter for toasting bread

Directions

1. Drain the canned tuna and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Add all the other ingredients and blend thoroughly.
3. Place pan on stove and heat to medium.
4. Butter two slices of bread on one side.
5. Place bread butter sides down on the pan.
6. Put tuna mixture on one piece of bread and sliced cheese on the other side.
7. Cook on medium until bread is toasty golden and cheese begins to melt.
8. Flip the cheese toast on top of the tuna toast to make a sandwich.
9. If necessary, cook a little longer until the desired doneness on each side.
10. Repeat for the second sandwich.

Great to serve with pickles, coleslaw or side salad, chips, or a cup of soup. You’ll feel like you’re at your favorite deli – only better!

Favorite Canned Tuna Casserole

This is one of our family favorite canned tuna recipes. Whether you’re feeding an entire family or just one or two, you’ll be able to make enough in one easy dish. If you have leftovers, they freeze perfectly. That makes it easy to have a delicious comfort meal when you don’t have time to make something fresh. We don’t use canned soup for our recipe because we like to watch our sodium. But if you have canned soup on hand and want to use it, you can easily substitute it for the milk and flour. If you have fresh or additional canned mushrooms, we suggest you add them too because we love the extra mushroomy flavor.

Ingredients

8 ounces of pasta (we like whole wheat, but you can use whatever you like or have)
2 Tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 Tablespoon butter for topping
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed (canned is okay too)
1-2 large ribs celery
1 can (5 ounce) tuna, drained (if you like more tuna or are feeding a crowd, add another can)
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (canned or jarred is okay)
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock or broth or vegetable broth (can also use diluted bullion or if you don’t have any use water)
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs (can use regular breadcrumbs, cornflake crumbs, or smashed up potato chips or crackers if you like – buttery style crackers like Ritz are great too)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or other cheese you might have or like)

Directions

Grease a 13 x 9 casserole baking dish with oil, butter, or non-stick spray.
Preheat the oven  to 375 degrees F

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions for al dente (usually about 8-10 minutes)
2. Meanwhile, melt the oil or butter in a skillet the sauté onions and celery until soft (about 4 minutes)
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (1 to 2 minutes)
4. Put sliced mushrooms into the mix and stir until liquid evaporates. If you are using soup add now and skip the following step.
5. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated. Add milk and stock, broth or water, alternating. Stir until mixture begins to thicken.
6. Add tuna and combine.
7. If using crumbs, melt 1 Tablespoon of butter and mix into crumbs.
8. Add peas and pasta to vegetable mixture, combine, and pour into greased pan.
9. Top with buttered crumbs and top crumbs with shredded cheese.
10. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until topping is bubbly and brown.

Goes well with a nice little mixed green salad too!

We hope you enjoy these simple canned tuna recipes. We’ll be publishing additional recipes using pantry staples to provide you with ideas for food that you can make at home while we all wait for the coronavirus to pass. But these recipes are delicious anytime, so keep them handy for whenever you like!

In the meantime, check out some of our other easy and tasty recipes like Santorini Tomato Keftedes
and Traditional Cuban Rice Recipe Moros Y Cristianos.

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