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Has everyone heard of Hawaiian Haystacks?! I had a friend over for dinner last week and she had never heard of or had Hawaiian Haystacks! I couldn’t believe it. We had this dinner all the time in Arizona, lol! Maybe it’s just an Arizona thing.
If you haven’t had this kind of dinner before you are in for a treat. It’s basically rice layered with a creamy chicken soup like gravy and topped with all kinds of fun toppings as you can see. It’s great to serve when you’ve got a lot of people over so everyone can make their own style.
Have fun!!
You can pretty much use whatever veggies you like with chicken. We love these baby heirlooms!
Green onions
These dried cranberries are really good as a topping.
Mmmmm almonds!
Crispy Chow Mein noodles. Adds the perfect crunch!
Some pineapple and sliced black olives.
Lots of cheese please
Alright, here we go, let’s start adding to this!
Add your chicken gravy and some green onions.
Some cranberries and olives.
Pineapple chunks and tomatoes!
LOVE these crispy noodles!
Don’t forget the cheese…..then grab your fork and go to town!
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
32 ounces reduced sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons of dry Ranch Dressing seasoning packet
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups cooked shredded chicken breast
Steamed rice, enough for your family
Toppings
Chow Mein Crispy Noodles
sliced green onions
black olives
pineapple
cranberries
almonds
tomatoes
shredded cheese
1. Place butter into a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring to melt. Slowly whisk in flour, salt and pepper until smooth and thick, for 1-2 minutes. Slowly whisk in chicken broth until smooth. Increase heat to high whisking until thick, about 2 minutes. Add sour cream, Ranch seasoning, garlic salt, and cooked chicken breast. Stir and season accordingly. You may prefer additional, salt, pepper and garlic salt. I transferred this to my crock pot and kept it on low all day until dinner. You can either serve it immediately or crock pot it until you are ready.
2. Place rice on serving plates and top with chicken gravy. Have toppings at the table and top with whatever you like! Have fun!
Makes 4 servings
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What is it about red velvet cookies that make my heart skip a beat? The deep fantastic red color? Who knows, but what I do know is that these simple, no fuss, make in about 15 minute cookies are to die for!
Try them for yourself, you’ll see what I’m talking about. As if they are not good enough, I’ve added giant chunks of Dark Milky Way bars to the dough with some cute little mini chocolate chips.
Perfect for your Valentine and even better for yourself, lol! Enjoy friends!
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Pineapple, cheese, baby heirlooms…right there, my eyes just lit up! Such pretty colors in this dish, Jenny!
I love all the colors too
I grew up in Hawaii and have never heard of Hawaiian Haystacks..
I highly doubt it’s really Hawaiian, that’s just what we called it.
I’ve never heard of these but it’s such a cool idea!
It’s such a quick easy dinner. The kids love it too with all the fun toppings.
We also put coconut,and sliced avocado on ours. Yum!
Oooo, I would love avocado! Totally doing that next time!
I lived in AZ for 26 years and never heard of this dish ever.
Really?! Maybe it was just a “my family” made up meal by my mom
Who knows. It’s good though!
Never heard of this before. I live in TX and we are more King Ranch Chicken types.
I’ve never heard of King Ranch Chicken, what is it? Bet it’s delicious!
we make this all the time! It is my kids favorite dinner. I usually just use cream of Chicken soup for the topping, but I am going to try it your way.
That’s how I used to have it Jenni! I thought it would be fun to make my own homemade sauce
Get out of TOWN. I’m so doing this.
Never heard of it, but it looks delicious.
Kentucky girl here….never heard of them. My six kids would love this! Trying soon!
Arizona born and raised…never heard of it either.
I love Hawaiian haystacks! I’ve had them in CA and PA. I think the only other thing we add is chopped celery. Such a fun meal!
Yes, that is one think I like to add too, just left it out this time.
Our family LOVES these. It’s especially great when company comes, since you can adjust the amount you make easily. My friend that grew up in Hawaii had never heard of these either. It think they are called that because of the pineapple and coconut.
Yes I totally agree, not a Hawaiian meal at all, lol!
We had these growing up, only they were called Japanese Ah-So Sundaes. We still love them.
Love that you made your own sauce, but one question – the list of ingredients says “sour cream”, but the directions say to add “cream cheese.” Which is it?
I love that you call them Japanese Ah So Sundaes! Thanks for catching my error, just edited. Should be sour cream. Thanks.
We have these, but call them Chinese Sundaes…so yummy!
I love Hawaiian Haystacks! Make them often. Gorgeous photos!
Thanks Janetha!
This is a family favorite at our house. I am gonna have to try your version! We also love coconut and celery on ours.
We had something similar growing up, except it was called Amish Haystack. It had rice and a taco meat topping and all sorts of toppings. I dont know why it was called amish haystack when it was more mexican themed, but it was a family favorite. We didn’t care.
I’ve had hawaiian haystacks, but never made my own. Thanks for sharing, I will definitely be making this one
Never heard of this and sorta unsure about the combination. But more so because of the cheese and tomatoes. I am not a huge fan of raw tomatoes.
The beauty of the recipe is you can top the rice with whatever you like
I grew up on Hawaiian Haystacks!! I have never tried it with dried cranberries though! Yum!! We were out of rice last time so my husband made it with quinoa. It was delicious!!
I love these!! I’ve had them and and I call them Hawaiian Haystacks, but a friend of mine from Virginia called it “Snow on the Mountains” because of the creamy sauce on top of the chicken and rice I guess. Haven’t made these in forever, so I’ll have to add it back on to my dinner menu one of these days!
We create these using smoked pork… Gravy is not creamy but made from the juice of pork. It’s FAB!!
i have not heard of hawaiian haystacks before, but i`m definitely willing to try this out! you got me at chicken gravy.
I’m surprised you don’t have coconut on your ingredients since that is what makes them “Hawaiian”.
We love these and like someone else said, they are the perfect dinner for company because everyone can choose what they like.
My family is anti coconut eaters which is why you don’t see it on my photo
I have these on the menu for thiw week! We always do celery, never had it with olives before, but my kiddos love olives, so I’ll have to try it. And we always top ours with a maraschino cherry
Yours looks much prettier than mine turns out!!
I grew up in Utah and I love Hawaiian Haystacks…thought it was a “Utah” thing. Good to see it’s loved elsewhere. For myself, I love the homemade sauce. And for toppings, there’s so many out there. Peas, fresh mushrooms, diced bell peppers, shredded coconut but I’ve gotta have the pineapple and shredded coconut with lots of cheese like you. This dish is so colorful it should be renamed “Rainbow Haystacks”. Thanks for sharing!
I live near an Amish community. They have gatherings centered around haystacks. I’m told they begin with rice or macaroni and cheese. Then you add taco meat or chili, onions, cheese, tomatoes, crunchy noodles and whatever else you like.
I always use canned cream of chicken soup for the gravy — one can soup to 1/2 can milk (double for more people, obviously). I made it this week when my dad was in town. He was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and is careful about his carbs now, so I used brown rice instead of the traditional white — it was really tasty. We usually put ham, chicken (pick one or take a little of both), green onion, tomato, green bell pepper, celery, carrots, crushed pineapple, toasted almonds, and cheese on for our toppings. Yummmmmm!
We do something very similar to this. We mke an easy chicken curry and then serve it with rice and a ton of toppings (bacon, hard boiled egg, green nions, pineapple, coconut, almonds, avocado, olives and more). Such a great easy dinner especially with company.
I would love to get your curry recipe! Sounds delicious, do you have it posted some where?
Thanks
A Hawaiian Haystack lover!
Growing up in Washington we ate these all the time! We also like to have green peppers and tomatoes on ours. Mmmm. I think we’ll need to eat this sometime this week.
I haven’t had one of these in forever!! TOTAL blast from the past!
Wow, I’ve never heard of these!! There’s a lot of stuff going on in that dish so it has to be good! Love your pretty tomatoes
I’ve never had these or heard of them but I have a feeling now that they will be making an appearance on the dinner table regularly. I’m already thinking of variations that I can make on this, too! Great idea!
I had never heard of Hawaiian Haystack,either…but I printed off the recipe and plan to make it!!! THANKS!!
Delicious! We also include mandarin oranges, diced bell peppers, and toasted coconut. This looks delicious and I love your varieties!
I love Hawaiian Haystacks! We also add peas and diced bell peppers to ours.
We eat this here in Utah pretty regularly too. They are great for feeding a crowd of picky eaters!! Everyone can customize theirs. I like mine with coconut, almonds, chow mein noodles, and cheese.
Your so right, I really am in for a treat! This has so many ingredients that I love! It’s definitely a new recipe that I’m going to try asap!
I grew up eating a similar dish, but we call it Javanese Chicken. It is always amazing at how much it grows before you get to the end.
This looks so incredibly good. Those tomatoes are gorgeous!
I have never heard of these before. I grew up in the Midwest, so it must be regional. It looks delicious, and so versatile. I am alwasy looking for an excuse to use the crispy Chow Mein Noodles.
We eat these all the time here in Utah and have for many years. Love your blog, thanks for you email updates.
Thanks Donna!
I absolutley LOVE Hawaiian Haystacks- my family has them all the time, especially when we have big get togethers. In all of my 26 years I’ve never heard of anyone else even knowing what these are! They are also really yummy with toasted coconut. thanks for sharing : )
Too funny Kristi! I was shocked when so many people hadn’t heard of this dish! I too like toasted coconut, but my family however….not fans, lol!
Wowsers! That’s flavor-town all in one plate. Gorgeous colors, Jenny
Yep! Love them. I’m in Idaho
We had them growing up too and I put them on the menu this month the other day, hoping to find a recipe that did not use cream of chicken soup. THanks!!
These are so fun, Jenny! I’ve heard of them, but never made them. I need to keep them in my file for when Julia gets older. I’m sure she’ll love making and eating them.
My family has been eating this dinner for YEARS! It’s such a family get together meal
Each person can make their own individual dinner of their choice. Love it! And yes, we call them Hawiian Haystacks or Chinese Chicken sundae’s (with the chow mein crunchy noodles)
We have had a lot of family together as my daughter has moved here (Iowa) from Seattle as her husband will be deploying. Had never heard of Hawaiian chicken – but boy was it a hit! Doubled the batch and had all your recommended toppings! And used the crockpot for serving later in the day! Many thanks, I love getting new recipes that everyone likes!
[...] Hearty family recipe: Personally, I could eat a salad for dinner every day, but if you’ve got a hungry brood, they’re probably going to want something that sticks to their ribs. I wasn’t familiar with Hawaiian haystacks, but they sound like a great way to customize dinner for everyone at the table. Start with rice, add chicken gravy, then let everyone in the family go crazy with their own toppings — pineapple, cranberries, crispy noodles, grated cheese, you name it. (Picky Palate) [...]