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.
Try my Crock Pot Chicken Broccoli Over Rice recipe too! Follow Picky Palate on Instagram for daily recipe inspiration!
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 love this recipe! It’s our family favourite. I do have one family member who is gluten free. Would you recommend using a cornstarch slurry to thicken or gluten free flour?
I have never used dried cranberries in this recipe. Sounds like a fun addition!!
We make the “Mexican” version…There is also an Israeli version, Egyptian, Greek…Well, you get the picture! I love that you can customize this dish per your family and taste preferences. Then there’s always the good ‘ol “kitchen sink” version ; )
I made this for my family and they LOVED IT! Thank you so much for sharing, this was so delicious and I will never go back to making it with Cream of ??? Ha!
One of my faves, never had it with dried cranberries and I love them! Will have to try it asap!
We eat Hawaiian haystacks twice a month or so and have always used cream of chicken for the gravy. We tried this recipe last time we made it and will never go back! Love, love, love your gravy recipe! Thank you times a million!
I made this tonight as I was intrigued (hadn’t heard of them before). I didn’t really care for the combination of flavors….I actually wondered if this was an April Fools joke as it was published on 4/1. I googled and found many similar recipes not published on 4/1 ;). My east coast taste buds just don’t know what to think of this dish. Loved the images, though!
Why does everyone forget the coconut? Afterall, they are called ” Hawaiian” haystack.
Oh but there is pineapple. 🙂 Shaved coconut isn’t popular in my family.
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I to find It
truly useful & it helped me out a lot. I’m hoping to present something again and aid others such as you aided me.
I just ordered your cookbook. And headed to the superstore tonight to get post-it flags so I’m prepared for it’s arrival! 😉 just one question, do you think this would taste good w/ a plain marinara sauce instead of the gravy? If not marinara can you suggest another sauce. My hubby is extremely picky & doesn’t like gravy (weird I know) haha.
I think it would be great with marinara sauce too!
Thanks! Just spent the afternoon “flagging” your cookbook & realized I was flagging pretty much every.single.page. I cam tell this may be my most used favorite cookbook soon. Now I’m ready for your next one! 🙂
hmm! I’ve never heard of it. Maybe because Indiana is more east. Looks yummy!
My family loves this! I always just made it with cream of chicken soup, but this is SO much better! Thanks for the great recipe
I’m convinced that these are a Western Mormon tradition… I’m Mormon but grew up in Indiana. I never had a Hawaiian Haystack until a RS activity at BYU! But people LOVE them out here. I’ve never made them because I hate cream-of’s so now I have no excuse and I live in UT now too, so it’s time I correctly indoctrinate my kids too right?! LOL. If you aren’t Mormon then you surely grew up in a predominantly LDS area in AZ…
Cool, I’m a Mormon, who is from and lives in Indiana too!