Garlic Asiago Chicken and Noodle Casserole

I've been doing some sorting and organizing of my huge stack of magazines that is taking up a lot of space in our little apartment. I'm sorting into 3 boxes - one for recipes that I want to keep, one for magazines that are full of too many recipes, tips and crafts to get rip apart the whole thing, and one box that holds that magazines that are going to be donated to our local thrift store. (Hopefully I will remember them and not buy them back!)

I'm going to be trying out some of these recipes for the next few weeks so that I can weed through the pages even more, keeping the ones that we like and ditching the rest.

The first recipe to be tested was the Chocolate Coconut Bars that I baked a couple of days ago. I will be keeping this one. It's moist and delicious with a great pairing of chocolate and coconut.

Next up is tonight's dinner, Garlic Asiago Chicken and Noodle Casserole. It's my take on Garlic Parmesan Chicken and Noodles from an April 2010 Better Homes and Garden magazine. Of course I made more of the recipe that what it said. The original recipe makes 4 servings but that's not enough for my hollow-legged son and the rest of us plus enough for leftovers for my husband's lunch.

I made some substitutions and changes to the recipes, the most obvious being the cheeses that I used. My version of this recipe is below.

Garlic Asiago Chicken and Noodle Casserole
adapted from an April 2010 Better Homes & Garden
magazine recipe

18 oz cooked egg noodles - keep warm after cooking
2 lb chicken, cut up into pieces - I cooked extra chicken
thighs and legs on July 4 so that I would have extra for
this meal
4 tbsp minced garlic
1 small can of diced mushrooms, drained
5 1/4 c. whole milk
2 c. shredded Asiago cheese
2 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese + 1 c. shredded mozzarella
1 tbsp sage
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp poultry seasoning

Preheat oven to 450*

To a large pot, add chicken, mushrooms and milk. Cook on medium heat until heated through.

Stir in Asiago cheese and 2 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese. Stir until smooth. Add noodles and stir to coat - the sauce will be thin, not a cheese sauce consistancy.

Pour the chicken and noodles into a large baking dish. Sprinkle the reserved cup of mozzarella cheese on top of the noodles.

Bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until the chicken and noodles start to lightly brown.

*****

My thoughts on this dish: Both of my kids liked this dish. They had no complaints about it. My husband and I thought that it was just ok. Just another noodle casserole and sort of bland at that. If you tend to like casseroles that contain a mild cheese flavor and don't contain a lot of spices, you would probably like this one. Would I make this again, probably not...at least not without add more flavor to it. At that point, it would be probably be another casserole completely. There's nothing wrong with this casserole. It just didn't excite my taste buds.