If You Add Frozen Ingredients To A Casserole Without Doing This, You'll Be Left With A Soggy Mess

Casseroles are life-savers for family meals on a budget, condensing mains and sides into one layered, tasty dish. Many casserole recipes use canned and frozen ingredients to expedite the cooking process and save money. However, if you add frozen ingredients directly to the casserole before baking it, you'll be left with a soggy mess.

While frozen food like vegetables or tater tots are precooked and ready to use right out of the freezer, the freezing process transforms their water content into ice crystals. These ice crystals will then melt back into water, which leaches out of frozen vegetables, resulting in a watery casserole. Instead of committing this fairly common mistake with casseroles, you'll want to remove as much excess moisture from the frozen food by thawing and draining it before layering it into your casserole.

How you thaw and drain frozen food for the best results depends on the ingredient in question. If, for example, you're using frozen spinach in your lasagna, you can let it sit out and thaw at room temperature before pressing it into a metal colander or squeezing it in cheesecloth. However, if you want to uphold the tender bite of broccoli or the pop and crunch of kernled corn, thawing them at room temperature might be the reason the vegetables themselves are soggy. Consequently, the best way to thaw and drain these vegetables is by sauteeing them; the dry heat will thaw the veggies while evaporating their water content.

Frozen ingredients are just one factor that contributes to a soggy or watery casserole. Another way to prevent a watery casserole from happening is to drain the grease from any meat you add. Grease is thicker than water, but it's still a liquid ingredient that'll affect the rest of your casserole's components. You can also eliminate excess fat by choosing a dry or low-fat cheese to add to the casserole. Moisture-absorbing ingredients like flour, cornstarch, or even chia seeds are great preventative measures to ensure that any flavorful juices firm up into thick gravy. Flour is the reason this chicken pot pie filling is so creamy and delicious. Adding grains like rice or pasta as well as potatoes is another great way to add heft while also introducing some extra starch to thicken the liquid or sauces surrounding casserole ingredients.

If you still end up with a watery casserole, there are ways to correct it. You can evaporate excess moisture by simply leaving the casserole in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. If you've been baking your casserole covered, uncover it for those extra minutes in the oven to give moisture a chance to escape.