Ready in just 20 minutes, these Hawaiian haystacks were a dish we had all the time growing up. This one is full of nostalgia for us for a few reasons. Our mom would make this for an easy weeknight meal, and she’d use it to clean out the veggie drawer.
We loved it because we could top it off with whatever we wanted and could easily customize it to make a dinner each of us would love. It was also one of the recipes we had at church functions or potlucks. With a big batch of rice, you can easily make a triple or quadruple batch of the gravy to feed a large group.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ready in 20 minutes
- Incredibly budget-friendly
- Versatile, can be customized with different toppings
- Easily scalable to feed a big group of people
- Nostalgic and comforting
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Cream of chicken soup: you need 1 (10.5 oz) can. You can also make a homemade sauce (noted in the FAQ section below).
- Milk: ¼ cup of any kind of milk. You could also sub this out for sour cream or plain greek yogurt (or add those to the sauce for a creamier gravy).
- Cooked chicken: You need about 2 cups of cooked, shredded chicken. This is a good recipe to use canned chicken or rotisserie chicken.
- Cooked rice: We like using minute rice, and we generally use about 4 cups for our family. You could also swap this out for brown rice, quinoa, or mashed potatoes.
- Toppings: Anything goes. For the Hawaiian Flavor, we like using crushed pineapple and coconut. We also like to add tomatoes, olives, bell peppers, green onions, chow mein noodles, and cheddar cheese.
What are Hawaiian Haystacks?
Hawaiian Haystacks are a nostalgic, comfort food dinner that start with a bed of rice, a creamy chicken gravy, and topped with chopped fruits and veggies. Though they are not truly Hawaiian food, common toppings include pineapple, coconut, and chow mein noodles (hence the ‘Hawaiian’ qualifier).
They’re popular for big group potlucks or church dinners, and were a staple for us growing up in Utah.
How to Make Hawaiian Haystacks
Everyone has their own way of making Hawaiian Haystacks, but this is how we prefer to make ours:
- Start with making the sauce by mixing together soup and milk, then add in shredded chicken. For a smoother or creamier sauce, you can add sour cream or plain greek yogurt.
- Add the shredded chicken. We like to make sure our chicken is extra shredded (more like a mince). Throw it in a food processor and give it three quick pulses for the perfect texture to add to the sauce.
- Cook rice (any kind will do). Using minute rice will make this really easy. You can also use quinoa, brown rice, or serve it over mashed potatoes.
- Assemble your “haystack”. We start with a rice base, then add a big scoop of chicken gravy on top. We love to add crushed pineapple – that’s where the “Hawaiian” moniker comes from.
- Add the rest of your toppings. We love adding chopped green or red peppers, coconut, tomatoes, green onions, olives, and crunchy chow mein noodles.
Pro Tips
- For a better sauce texture, with more uniformity, we like to shred the chicken really finely. You can use a stand mixer, or even a food processor to shred it up.
- If you’re serving this to a crowd, keep the toppings in big bowls separately to let people choose which ones they’d like to add. You could also invite people to bring their own toppings to share.
- We like to double the sauce. It’s our kids favorite part and it goes really fast!
What could I serve as a side dish with this recipe?
This recipe can be tricky to pair with a side dish, because it has so many elements to the main dish. However, we do have a few simple recommendations that would work great with this dish.
Here is what we recommend:
- Seven Layer Green Salad or any green salad, but this one is delicious.
- Pina Colada Fruit Dip the kids love this when we make it as a side dish for dinner.
- 30 Minute Dinner Rolls these taste great with the
- 5 Minute Jello Salad it’s light and fluffy and a midwest classic to match it
Frequently Asked Questions
Use the low fat cream of chicken soup. You could also add plain Greek yogurt to the sauce mixture. The plain Greek yogurt really makes it so creamy and yummy.
This is a great recipe for cleaning out your veggie drawer! We love to put bell peppers, onions, coconut, pineapple, olives, shredded carrots, crunchy chow mein noodles, tomatoes, or shredded cheese.
This American midwest classic came from church and community culture, especially in Utah (where we grew up!). It started gaining popularity in the 1950s. Although the exact origin is unknown, the budget-friendly, pantry-staple ingredient list help is probably the reason for its initial rise to fame.
Yes. We would recommend making the sauce ahead of time, then letting it cool and refrigerating it until you’re ready to use. You can also prepare the toppings ahead of time. When it’s time to serve, make the rice, heat the sauce back up and serve with the prepared toppings.
We would recommend you sub the cream of chicken soup for a homemade version. This homemade cream of chicken soup recipe from All Recipes is a great one to use.
More Easy Chicken and Rice Recipes
- Slow Cooker Southwest Chicken and Rice
- One Pan Chicken and Rice
- Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken and Rice
- Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
- Parmesan Chicken and Rice
Hawaiian Haystacks Recipe
Ingredients
- 10.5 ounces cream of chicken soup
- ¼ cup milk
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
- 4 cups rice, cooked
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 6 ounces black olives, sliced
- 1 cups chow mein noodles
- 20 ounces pineapple tidbits, drained
- 1 ½ cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- ¾ cup coconut, shredded
Equipment
Instructions
- Mix soup and milk together. Then add in shredded chicken. Heat and stir until well blended.
- Have 4 cups of warm cooked rice in a bowl. Everyone can scoop out their rice and then ladle the chicken soup mixture over the rice.
- Have all the other ingredients in bowls. Then add all other toppings to your haystack. This is a great way to introduce your kids to new foods and vegetables. I like bell peppers, tomatoes, green onions, olives, chow mein noodles, and coconut on mine.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
We always put slivered almonds and shredded coconut on ours too!! So yummy- you must try it!
We ate these a lot growing up too! We prefer our chicken shredded though, and we doctor up the sauce. Garlic & some other spices, as well as some sour cream! But we add milk as well so it’s not so thick. We also had slivered almonds that my mom to asted in a pan on the stove. We also have celery, green onion, coconut as some more toppings. I once dated a guy whose family put peas on theirs and I really like it!
I love learning some simple dinner nibbles!!! Thanks for this great recipe 🙂 Warmest, Nic
I love Hawaiian Haystacks. How many servings does this make?
What would you have with these, like a side?
You could have a roll and any salad. A lot of veggies and fruit can be added as your Hawaiian Haystack toppings!
If your cooking this for 20+ people how much chicken should I use.
I love Hawaiian haystacks. But could you give a bit more description to how to make the sauce? It says a pot, soup and milk. I’m assuming you heat the two together then add the cooked/shredded chicken. Could you give a bit more detail on that sauce step. Thanks!
We added more information, sorry about that. You want to mix the soup and milk together. Then add the shredded chicken. Heat over low/medium heat until heated through. Then ladle over the rice.
I love Hawaiian Haystacks. Chow mein noodles are a must have topping when I make them.
Great recipe just missing sourcream