I want to share a favorite Comfort Food recipe. One of my children prefers rice to potatoes with the exception of French Fries - sad sigh. It truly hurts my feelings a little bit to scrape mashed potatoes into the trash. So I'm always looking for good "ricey" things to eat. I LOVE creamy chicken and rice casseroles, but honestly I get a culinary bee in my bonnet reading recipes where you have to cook EVERYTHING first and then put it all together and bake it again! This is a similar rant to crock pot recipes that require pre-cooking.
Everyone is my family enjoys this dish and even without a potato in sight it's pretty yum. I cut up the chicken into little pieces, one package of chicken breasts or tenders works. Then I mix everything together (except crackers, cheese, and butter) raw in a large mixing bowl. It will be runny and you will want to panic, but don't - it's supposed to be that way. The key is to bake covered for half an hour and uncovered for half an hour and then let it sit for a few minutes to "firm" up before serving. The spices in the recipe are things I had on hand so don't shop especially for them. I've included some subsititutions in the recipe below. When I make this for a regular weeknight dinner I use light versions of everything and go easy on the toppings on one corner (mine) to make it more calorie friendly. But if you get sick or have a baby and I bring this to you it's full on calories and flavor!
So I decided to make a chicken and rice that started with everything raw. This is quite astounding because I am a recipe rule following kind of girl. If I ever make something up, it's a big deal.....and I feel quite proud (see my bowtie beauties post). This is what I ended up with and it really is a favorite.
Chicken and Rice Casserole
3 chicken breasts
1 box Uncle Ben’s Chicken and Wild Rice
½ cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
½ cup water
1 teaspoon rotisserie chicken seasoning mix (can sub salt or seasoned salt)
½ teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 Tablespoon minced onion (or grated fresh onion or onion powder)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
¼ cup melted butter
Cut raw chicken into little bite-sized pieces. Mix chicken with rice and seasoning packet, sour cream, soup, broth, water and seasonings in a large bowl. Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking pan sprayed with Pam. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and top with cheese, crushed crackers and melted butter. Bake uncovered for an additional 30 minutes.
Hope you enjoy and share this keeper.
Jamy
Hi Jamy! I tried this recipe about a month and a half ago and it turned out pretty good, though a bit on the salty side. Now that I'm looking at it again, I was wondering if you can clarify exactly what kind of Uncle Ben's you used? I ended up using this: http://www.unclebens.com/Products/Long-Grain-Wild-Rice/Uncle-Ben-s-reg;-Original-Long-Grain-Family-Size because it's what I had on hand. I was just wondering if the different seasoning mix made it more salty or if something else was to blame. Thank you for this wonderfully easy and delicious recipe, by the way!
ReplyDeleteHi! I use the Chicken flavored Uncle Ben's Quick Cook Wild Rice mix. I had to switch out for another flavor recently because my usual wasn't available at my store and the whole dish tasted very different, but I would think that the regular long grain and wild rice mix would work....We do like our food quite salty, so it might be a personal preference. Maybe you could omit the rotisserie seasoning, just use half of the seasoning packet that comes with the rice, or use low sodium chicken broth? Hope that helps! Thanks so much for your comment!
Delete