Every time A-Dub's mom comes over to babysit she brings this Marie Callender's casserole (that I cannot show you a picture of because they use flash pictures on their website) and my kids apparently adore it. So I was thinking well, if they'll eat it, surely I can make that at home, better. It's just broccoli-cheese-rice casserole with chicken. Since broccoli is one of A-Dub's favorite foods (seriously, it's right up there with spinach), I know as long as it is in our entree I won't get flack for the dish, no matter how much butter and Velveeta is in it. Plus, it's gluten-free (if you use gluten-free chicken broth and cream of mushroom soup, which I found here on Amazon)! Plus plus, it is super easy to make. The only bad thing is that it kind of takes a long time to bake. No matter, I made it the night before and warmed it up in the microwave for the kids the next day. Even easier for me.
1 cup rice (not Minute Rice--my favorite is Uncle Ben's converted white rice)
1/2 of an onion, chopped (1/2 cup to 1 cup)
florets from 3-4 broccoli stalks (3-4 cups)
8oz package Velveeta (the itty bitty baby one)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
few pats of butter
1 lb chicken (approximately)
1 10.5oz can cream of mushroom soup (gluten free if applicable)
1 14oz can chicken broth (gluten free if applicable)
2 cups cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 375. Grease a large-ish casserole dish with a pat of butter. In the casserole dish, first you will layer rice.
Then onions.
Steam your broccoli in a Ziploc Steam bag for 3 minutes.
Unpaid product endorsement: thank you Ziploc for giving me Ziploc Steam Bags! I use these ALL the time. Whenever I need an easy vegetable side-dish I throw broccoli, green beans, zucchini and squash or just about any vegetable in a steam bag with a little salt, pepper and butter. When you're done, throw the bag away. If I were going to serve this broccoli as a side dish I would cook it for 5 minutes but since it is going to be cooked in the casserole dish it doesn't have to be cooked through. Layer broccoli on top of onions.
Cut Velveeta into cubes,
and layer on top of broccoli.
Then a few pats of butter. Okay, I know a "few" means three and I did eight. It's a pretty big dish. Add teaspoons of salt and pepper.
Slice your chicken into small-ish cubes. I made mine slightly smaller so when I feed it to Bobo I don't have to pick through, find the chicken and cut it into smaller pieces.
Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper and mix up with your hands.
Layer chicken over butter.
Glop cream of mushroom soup right over the chicken.
Pour whole can of chicken broth over mushroom soup.
My original recipe called for 1-1/2 cups chicken broth, which I believe would be 12 oz. Since my can was 14 oz, I used the whole thing. I believe this required me to bake the casserole a little longer so it was the consistency I wanted it to be, so keep that in mind as you are cooking.
Mix everything up with a spoon. Be sure to dig all the way down to the bottom so the rice is incorporated well into the liquid.
Cover and bake for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, take it out of the oven and stir it up.
How soupy is it? Mine was still pretty soupy, so I decided it needed 10 more minutes before I topped it with cheese. Also, my rice wasn't cooked all the way.
After the additional 10 minutes it was a firmish consistency. Top with 2 cups of cheddar cheese and bake for 10-20 minutes, until cheese is bubbly on top. Oops! Almost forgot to take a picture with cheese on top (because I know you need to know what it looks like to put shredded cheese on top of a casserole . . . sheesh!).
Yum yum!
She has her knees in her sweater because she was cold. It's finally fall!
