Have you ever heard of Hawaiian Haystacks before? If you haven’t it may be because you are not in Utah. I have had several people who aren’t originally from Utah, that are now in Utah, say that they have never heard of them. So I am sharing this with you so you’ll be able to know what they aren’t if you haven’t heard of them. These are yummy and quick. I make these all the time for my family and the all love them. They all many not put the same toppings on them, but that’s part of the fun with these. The basis for the Hawaiian Haystacks is cooked rice and a creamy sauce. I am going to share two ways that I cook the sauce. One is a stove top method and the other is a crock pot method. On the stove top method, I usually don’t add the chicken. I figure it doesn’t hurt to have a meal without meat. This recipe is what I make for my family of 5, but can easily be increased or decreased if needed. You can use chicken broth in place of the milk if you prefer.
Hawaiian Haystacks
Stove top method:
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 can of milk or so
2 cups of cooked chicken breasts, diced or shredded (I don’t usually add this when I do the stove top method)
Heat soup and milk on the stove until heated through. You want this to be the consistency of gravy. You can add more milk if the mixture is too thick. Add the chicken and cook til warm.
Crock pot method:
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 frozen chicken breasts
milk
Put chicken breasts in the crock pot and then cover with soup. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove chicken from the crock pot and shred or dice the chicken and return to the crock pot. Add enough milk to make the consistency of gravy.
Serve the sauce over cooked rice. I usually plan on at least one cup per person. Then top with any of the following toppings. The first nine listed are what I like on mine, but I don’t always have all of those ingredients.
shredded cheddar cheese
pineapple tidbits
sliced olives
diced green onion
chopped celery
shredded coconut
slice almonds
diced fresh mushroom
Chow mien noodles
diced tomatoes
peas
mandarin oranges
raisins
diced green pepper
water chestnuts
cashews
soy sauce
or anything else that you think would be good
We do a large family group (25) on a houseboat at Lake Powell every year- take turns with meals each day and Hawaiian Haystacks are always a staple. The best thing about them is that each person can customize them to their own preferences, so even the pickiest of eaters gets a meal that they enjoy! Since our group ranges in age from 65-1, that’s a big group to try to please and this dish always works!
Delicious! We ate these for dinner last night and they are so much better than I remembered.
I love Hawaiian Haystacks. It’s funny because I live in Utah and I learned this recipe from my aunt in Southern California in the early 1990′s. She also topped them with the maraschino cherries.
I love these! I always picked it as my birthday dinner growing up.
When I make it I actually use one large can of chicken & just shred that up so that the sauce has a little bit of meat but not a log.
I LOVE these and I had forgotten about them. Mummmmm, just thinking of how good they were with the pineapple and coconut. So much for the Utah theory, though… we ate them growing up in Southern California.
Our family topped them with a maraschino cherry – they all swore it was great, but since I don’t eat cherries I can’t vouch. LOL!
Thanks for reminding me of home.
Never heard of this. I’ve enjoyed your blog. I like that your recipes are practical and something everyone can do. I’m adding you to my cooking blogroll. Keep it up!
Wow, never heard of this before. The picture looks delicious!!!! I love Jasmine rice, that would be probably work well for this.
mmmm I love these! I forgot about them! I love the crockpot idea!! Thank you!
Yummy! I haven’t had these in a while. Of course my Southern husband has never heard of these and he is pretty sceptical to new recipe’s but maybe I will have to whip it up for him sometime.