Sharing my favorite Hawaiian Haystacks recipe today! Perfect crock pot recipe the whole family loves! Homemade chicken gravy and lots of toppings!
Hawaiian Haystacks
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.
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Hawaiian Haystacks Toppings
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!
Tips For Serving
- It’s nice serving this meal family style. I like to put all of the toppings in little dishes so everyone can choose their favorites for their own plate.
- Keep the chicken gravy in a crock pot so that it stays warm all night
- A nice chopped salad goes great with this dinner.
- Hawaiian Haystacks are perfect for Sunday Dinner serving a crowd!
Homemade Hawaiian Haystacks
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons (1 sticunsalted 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
Instructions
- 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.
- Place rice on serving plates and top with chicken gravy. Have toppings at the table and top with whatever you like! Have fun!
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I tried this recipe today and everybody loved it! It’s such a fun meal to make for a crowd. And so much better than using cream of whatever.
Here’s some things I will change next time: use less flour. I had to add some water because it was too flour-y. And I will also skip the salt/pepper/garlic salt. The ranch seasoning alone gives the dish enough saltiness and flavor (and I like my food salty!) I added half cube of chicken buillion for some extra flavor.
This is deffinately a keeper recipe!! Thanks so much for posting it.
We had it all the time in Phoenix, but we added shredded chicken.
I’m a little late posting on this, but my family also has Haystacks all the time! We also do corn, cucumbers, green peppers, avocados, and onions. For our sauce, we use chicken broth, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and chicken gravy mix. This sauce recipe sounds delish, too, so I’m going to be trying it next time! Thanks for the recipe!! And, I’ve never thought of using the cranberries, but that’s an amazing idea! Definitely going on my next plate of Hawaiian Haystacks!!!
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They are also called Chinese Sundaes (hence the reason for chow mein noodles). Some recipes add coconut and pineapple which may be why it got tagged as Hawaiian…. I personally love green peppers on mine.
I first had haystacks in college, but they were just slathered in cream of soup…bleh. Your sauce, however, is AMAZING! Love that you add sour cream and ranch seasoning, it just makes it so flavorful. This is how Hawaiian Haystacks should be made!
I love the name! We always called it “Snow on the Mountain” when I was growing up. My mom had it as a child & she shared it with all of us. Such a fun recipe that everyone can enjoy…the toppings make it delicious for any taste-buds.
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! Love making the gravy homemade instead of the canned cream of chicken! Just wondering, have you ever froze the gravy, I never know when stuff will freeze well or not. Just wondered if it was a ‘freeze well’ food or not.
Huge hit! I didn’t have crunchy noodles or green onions, but I did have those french-fried onions usually reserved for green bean casserole. Scrumptious. Thanks for the recipe!
I am from Arizona and we make this all the time! Super easy and Super good!! 🙂
What an odd combination of foods lol.
Your pictures are beautiful. Thank you for the gravy recipe, and the crock pot idea. My family loves coconut, so we always have it as part of this meal.
Oh my! This looks delicious! I am featuring your dish on my blog today. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Coconut is a must when we are these. They are a family favorite at our house.
This is the first that I have heard of Hawaiian Haystacks but they sound good!
My daughter loves Hawaiian Haystacks. They are on the elementary school lunch menu here in Utah. I’m going to try your recipe because I am so tied of the taste of crem of chicken soup.
Love these! I thought it was a Utah Mormon thing, but it sounds like it went a little farther south as well:)
I live in AZ and have had these ton and tons of times. They are so good. For us in this small town I think it is an lds thing.
If you like the sweet and salty mixture, hawaiian haystacks taste FANTASTIC with a little bit of sweetened flake coconut on top. Hawaiian haystacks are probably one of my all time favorite dinners. I’m so glad you are sharing this recipe with all of us!
I have had these before but they were called Polynesian Volcanoes.
In all honesty its really a Mormon dish kinda became popular in Utah then branched out to other Mormon populated states such as AZ, and CA. We had this all growing up and was my favorite only if the gravy was homemade and NOT canned (YUCK)
I would love to know what cheese grater you are using to get your cheese so picture perfect curly.
I’ve never been big fan of Haystacks because of the cream of chicken soup. Your homemade version with all the great toppings sounds like a must try.
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!
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)
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.
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!!
Yep! Love them. I’m in Idaho
Wowsers! That’s flavor-town all in one plate. Gorgeous colors, Jenny 🙂
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!
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 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.
This looks so incredibly good. Those tomatoes are gorgeous!
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.
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!
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.