One of my favorite dishes to eat during the rush of a busy week is a casserole. I love putting this together during the weekend and pulling it out in the middle of the week when I'm just about tired of cooking dinner. This also makes a great Sunday dinner with a side of dinner rolls or your favorite bread.
This recipe came about after the initial diagnosis of Kelsie's allergies. One of our family's favorite meals was Grandmother's Chicken and Rice Bake by Stouffers. After the diagnosis, we were reading the list of ingredients and noticed A)she couldn't have it anymore, but more importantly B)holy moly at the list of "what is that?" in there!
I knew that I could make this from scratch and make it better then what came from the frozen food section. Since then we eat this at least once a month. It's filling and delicious!
-Scroll down to a printable version
What do you need?
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, boiled, cooled, and chopped
1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
1 ½ cups frozen peas and carrots
1 cream of soup recipe (recipe follows) Or you can use 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup
1 homemade rice a roni recipe (recipe follows) Or you can use 1 box of chicken flavored rice a roni cooked according to the package
2 medium onions, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 cup flour
water
oil for frying onions
salt
pepper
What do you do?
1. Mix together your chicken, rice, cream of soup, yogurt, and peas and carrots until thoroughly combined.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
3. While that is baking mix together heat up some oil in a small pot.
4. Mix your flour with enough water it makes it a little looser than pancake batter. Toss your onions the batter and add a few at at time to the hot oil. Fry them up in small batches, laying on paper towels to drain, and salting well. Set aside.
5. At 30 minutes pull your chicken and rice bake out of the oven and top with the onions. Serve!
::homemade cream of soup::
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
½ cup milk
½ cup chicken broth
-Melt your butter in a small sauce pan and add the flour. Mix together and whisk in your milk and broth slowly, making sure to incorporate it well. Don't just pour it all in and stir, it won't come together right. Over low heat, continue whisking until the mixture is slightly thickened. It will thicken more as it sits.
::homemade rice a roni::
1 cup rice
2 ½ cups chicken broth
1 ½ tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon thyme
chicken bullion cube
-Melt your butter in a large skillet with a lid. Add rice, stir to coat with the melted butter. Add your broth and spices, bring to a boil. Simmer and cover 10-15 minutes or until rice is done. It will be a bit soupy, that's ok. Remove from heat and allow to sit 5 minutes.
