The Baked Chicken Reuben casserole came out of the oven with a golden brown top. The serving on the plate is accompanied by a few slices of rye bread, plus some raw carrots for extra color.
                                 Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

The Baked Chicken Reuben casserole came out of the oven with a golden brown top. The serving on the plate is accompanied by a few slices of rye bread, plus some raw carrots for extra color.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

But now our test cook wants to make her own dressing

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<p>Two pounds of raw chicken tenders fit nicely into my baking dish. The recipe came from a 30-year-old cookbook called ‘The Treasury of Creative Cooking.’</p>
                                 <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Two pounds of raw chicken tenders fit nicely into my baking dish. The recipe came from a 30-year-old cookbook called ‘The Treasury of Creative Cooking.’

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

<p>Mary Therese Biebel</p>
                                <p>Times Leader Test Kitchen</p>

Mary Therese Biebel

Times Leader Test Kitchen

“This is happiness in a dish,” news editor Roger DuPuis said, waxing poetic over my latest offering from the Times Leader Test Kitchen.

“Reuben sandwiches are wonderful, but they’re messy,” he continued. “You’ve taken all of the flavor of a Reuben and made it neat and compact.

Oh, but I can’t take credit for the idea.

I found the recipe for Baked Chicken Reuben in “The Treasury of Creative Cooking,” a cookbook published in 1992 and filled with quite a few recipes that won prizes in various contests.

One Marcia Adams of Indiana happened to win a prize in a National Chicken Cooking Contest, sponsored by the National Broiler Council, with this recipe for a casserole that combines the sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing of a traditional Reuben sandwich with chicken instead of corned beef.

You bake it in a pan for 90 minutes and, if you feel it really needs some rye bread, you can serve that on the side.

Speaking of Reubens, I used to enjoy the traditional version of the sandwich at Lowe’s Restaurant on West Market Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, and I also liked Boscov’s “California Reuben” that used turkey and cole slaw instead of corned beef and sauerkraut.

Well, enough nostalgia about restaurants that are no longer with us.

It was very easy to assemble this casserole, especially since I used chicken tenders that were already skinless and boneless — and it received good reviews in addition to Roger’s “happiness in a dish” comment.

At home, Mark said it was a good flavor combination.

At my mom’s house, she said, “I didn’t think sauerkraut and chicken would go together, so I’m surprised at how good this tastes.”

In the newsroom, reporter Jen Learn-Andes said “it was delicious; a great blend.”

The comments continued:

“I’m not really a sauerkraut fan,” page designer Lyndsay Bartos said. “But I’m so glad I did try this. I was pleasantly surprised.”

“I liked it a lot,” obituary clerk Ashley Bringmann said. “I definitely like it better with chicken than with corned beef.”

“It’s not overwhelming,” columnist Bill O’Boyle said. “Just simple and delicious.”

As I was listing the ingredients for anyone who wanted to know, Bill said, “I couldn’t detect the Thousand Island dressing at all.”

Hmm. Actually, I’ve been thinking about the dressing, how I blithely opened a bottle of store-bought salad dressing and poured 1 and 1/4 cups over the dish, thereby adding about 1,440 calories to what was probably about 900 calories from the chicken, 600 from the Swiss cheese and 86 from the pound of sauerkraut.

In retrospect, I realize I could have tried making a homemade Thousand Island dressing from yogurt and ketchup and pickles and that might have been a healthier option. I’ve found recipes for homemade dressing online, and I’d like to try making one of them in the future.

But making it this way certainly was easy. So, thank you, Marcia Adams of Indiana. And it was a people pleaser.

Baked Chicken Reuben

4 whole chicken breasts, split, skinned and boned

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 can (16 ounces) sauerkraut, well drained

4 (6 x 4-inch) slices Swiss cheese

1 and 1/4 cups Thousand Island salad dressing

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place chicken in a single layer in greased baking pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Press excess liquid from sauerkraut; spoon over chicken. Arrange cheese slices over sauerkraut. Pour dressing evenly over the top. Cover pan with aluminum foil. Bake about 90 minutes or until chicken is tender.