Hot Chicken Salad

A couple years ago, while searching for something to make for dinner, my mother suggested we make Hot Chicken Salad. I had never heard of such a thing, so we began to search through her old recipe book and we discovered the recipe. It is a recipe from my grandmother, which gives it extra value in my opinion. So anyway, we made it, and it was amazingly delicious. I've made it several times since then, and decided to whip it up the other day. 

2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

4-5 Cups Diced Chicken Breast (about 3-4 Breast Pieces)

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

3/4 Cup Real Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp Minced Onion

1 Cup Diced Celery

4 Diced, Hard-boiled Eggs

1 8oz Bag Plain Potato Chips

I started by boiling, and chopping up the chicken breasts. I boiled two, then discovered it wasn't quite enough, so I had to boil another one. 

While the chicken was boiling, I also hard boiled the eggs.

Now, you may think this odd for all the cooking I have done, but I have a very difficult time hard boiling eggs. For whatever reason, I can never remember exactly how it's done. Is it start them cold and boil them 10 minutes? Or maybe you put them in boiling water, then turn it down, then let them sit 10 minutes? Or is it put them in cold water, let them boil, and then immediately transfer them back to cold water? *sigh* Way too many options. (Turns out, it's put them in cold water, bring it to a boil, boil them for 10 minutes, let them cool for about 2 minutes, then transfer them to cold water)

Anyway, I have always ended up with undercooked eggs. And once you crack them to see if they're done, you're out of luck. 

BUT! This time, I did it right! I was ridiculously pleased with myself. ^_^

Once I had the eggs done, I chopped them up. 

Then I mixed the eggs, chicken, and other ingredients together.

Once they were all mixed, I greased an 11x13 pan and spread the bottom with crushed potato chips. *NOTE* The potato chips do not get mixed in with the rest of the ingredients. They get crushed and layered on the top and bottom of the rest of the casserole 

After putting in a layer of chips, I spread the rest of the stuff on top, and sprinkled more crushed chips on top of that.

Into the oven it went! 425˚ for about half an hour, or until it's bubbling and the chips are starting to brown. Like so:

It's especially delicious when you add a side of potato chips. :D

It's definitely a favorite meal of mine... although my brother professed to absolutely hate it. He does really dislike mayonnaise, though, so that could be the reason. :)

It's also good reheated, but I'd recommend adding fresh potato chips to the top if you do that, since the ones it was baked with tend to get a bit soggy after they've been sitting for awhile.