Years ago, when I was flipping through a magazine, a cheesy recipe caught my eye. It was simple, quick, and cheap — the busy mom’s culinary trifecta. Plus, the glossy picture featured a vegetable both kids would eat: broccoli.
I remember tearing the page out and thinking it might save me on a hectic weeknight, when late afternoons were a scramble between homework, carpools, and hours on a baseball field.
At the time, I didn’t really know how to cook and was trying to build a small rotation of easy meals that everyone in the family would eat.
I forgot about it until the holidays rolled around and we needed a side dish to bring to a potluck party. The broccoli-cheese duo was a big hit — the first casserole to disappear — and people even asked me for the recipe.
As someone who didn’t enjoy being in the kitchen, I knew it was a keeper.
The steps are easy
Most every cookbook on my shelf at the time had long, confusing ingredient lists. This one, however, had no chopping, sauteeing or complicated steps—just four ingredients mixed together.
Depending on whether you buy store-brand or name-brand labels, the total cost of ingredients ranges from $5 to $10, with the most expensive ingredient being the Cheese Whiz. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble and can be made a day or more in advance. As a lifelong fan of anything make-ahead, this was a great selling point for me.
Here are the ingredients you will need:
- 1 package (20 oz.) frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained
- 1 can (10¾ oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup Cheez Whiz Cheese Dip
- 1 box (6 oz.) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
I also like to have about five tablespoons of butter on hand to melt and mix with the stuffing.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Next, spray a 2-quart casserole dish with Cooking Spray and set it aside. That’s the size I reach for most often because it gives you a thicker casserole with all the cheesy goodness tucked in.
I have some secrets
But here’s a pro tip I’ve learned after years of bringing this dish to get-togethers: if you’re feeding a crowd or know people will be coming back for seconds, grab a three-quart dish instead. Using the larger pan lets the casserole spread out a bit, so it serves more people without losing any of its flavor. It’s a small adjustment that has saved me more than once when extra kids or family members showed up around the holidays.
Mix the first three ingredients (broccoli, cheese, and soup) in the baking dish. If you are saving it to cook for another day, this is the point where you’d cover it with foil and store it in the fridge or freezer. The Stove Top stuffing mix should only be added just before baking, so it stays crisp.
One tweak I’ve made to the original recipe is to not cook the stuffing mix, but to use it dry, so that the breadcrumbs remain crunchy for the topping. Also, more butter makes it better. The original recipe called for three tablespoons, but I upped it to five. Trust me on this.
For the perfect crispy top, pour the stuffing mix into a bowl. Melt five tablespoons of butter in the microwave and drizzle it over the crumbs. Give it a good stir so everything gets nicely coated, and then spread it evenly over the top of your casserole.
Pop it into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping begins to turn golden brown. It makes eight servings of ¾ cup each.
It goes well with any food
Besides being economical, it pairs with just about anything: roast chicken, baked ham, grilled pork chops, even a big green salad—and it’s surprisingly tasty the next day. It’s also endlessly adaptable. If you’re not a broccoli fan, you can swap in cauliflower, green beans, or even a mix of whatever frozen vegetables you have on hand.
Since that original potluck party, I’ve made this casserole numerous times. For a holiday work party one year, we were each asked to bring something to share. Many of my co-workers had special diets or allergies, a few were vegetarian, and my deskmate admittedly had the palate of a finicky child.
After stressing about what to bring, I ended up making my broccoli cheese casserole. Hoping one or two people might have a bite, I planned to bring the leftovers home for my family. Once again, it disappeared quickly, and my picky office mate told me I should bring two the next time.
This simple side dish remains a hall-of-famer in my small repertoire. Even now, with grown kids, it’s still a favorite in our house. Not bad for a 10-minute recipe.
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