Swiss Cheese Chicken Casserole (With Almonds!)

This is a pretty easy casserole that was a big hit with the whole family (minus the 2-year-old that barely eats anything other than cheese sandwiches, bananas and fruit snacks and of course, didn't even try a bite... but that changes weekly). The great thing about it is you can prepare the bulk of it ahead of time and just add the creamy topping when you're ready to throw it in the oven.

I upped the amount of ingredients in order to make enough for everyone, so this is what I ended up using:

INGREDIENTS:
6 Chicken breasts, cooked and then cubed
2 1/2 cups seasoned croutons
3/4 cup celery chopped
3/4 cup onion (love onions)
1/2 lb Swiss cheese cubed
1/2 cup almond slices
1 (10 3/4 ounce can) Cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise

First you prepare everything except the soup/mayo mix. You do all of this section if you're preparing ahead of time.

INSTRUCTIONS:
*If you're preparing dinner now, not getting it ready ahead of time, go ahead and preheat your oven to 325.

1. Cook your chicken if it's not pre-cooked
2. Cut them into cubes
3. Lightly grease your pan (I don't have a big one, with the above portions I used a small circle pie pan and a 9x9 baking pan)
4. Place chicken into pans and cover with celery, onion, croutons, cheese and almonds
5. Add salt and pepper to your liking

Stop here if you're preparing ahead of time and continue when you're ready to cook. If not preparing ahead of time, then continue below...

6. Mix your mayo and soup together and cover the mixture in your pan evenly
7. Cover pan and bake it for 50 minutes
8. Uncover and bake for 10 more minutes
9. Let stand 10 minutes

NOTES:
Be sure to cover the chicken mixture entirely and evenly or croutons will toast and get very crunchy. To me, the cream mixture was a little thick. Next time I will add a little bit of water to the soup before mixing it with the mayo.

This recipe was adopted from the Gooseberry one (I couldn't find it on the Gooseberry site) on Food.com