I always seem to have cooked chicken and nothing to do with it, especially now that summer is beckoning and I don’t really feel like eating soups and stews. So I went googled “chicken casserole” and used the inspiration I found to come up with this.
First you make a roux with butter and flour. Actually, first you want to cook your rice. It can be left over from a previous meal, or you can make it fresh. Just be sure to have it before you’re ready to assemble your casserole, or you might end up eating dinner at bedtime, not that I would know anything about THAT!
Whisk it together over medium heat until it gets all happy and bubbly.
Then add the milk and chicken broth and stir frequently till it is nice and thick and bubbly.
While that cooks, chop up your chicken.
Now, add the chicken and rice to the cream sauce, along with some chopped red peppers for color and flavor. (Green will do, I just happened to have red on hand.)
Woah, epic camera fail. You get the gist.
Mix it all together, throw in another couple tablespoons of butter for good measure, and spread it into a greased casserole dish. Oh, and don’t forget the salt. If you didn’t add salt earlier, when you made the roux, throw a teaspoon in now. Do a taste test and be sure it’s the right amount. Trust me, mine was a bit on the bland side because I didn’t taste test.
Bake it for 40 minutes or until it’s browned and bubbly. We enjoyed it with a salad fresh from our garden!
Recipe: Chicken Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp butter, divided
- 1/3 cup gluten-free all purpose flour such as Bob’s Red Mill
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1-1/2 cups chicken stock (homemade is best)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2-1/2 cups cooked chopped chicken
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1/3 cup diced red or green pepper
Instructions
- Prepare your rice according to the package.
- When you’re ready to assemble the casserole, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt 4 Tbsp butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Then add the flour, salt and pepper, and stir until it’s nice and bubbly.
- Stir in the chicken stock and milk and keep stirring as it comes to a boil. Boil for one minute before removing it from the heat.
- Stir in the chopped chicken, the rice, and the diced pepper.
- Add the remaining 2 Tbsp butter, stir that in, and spread it into a buttered casserole dish.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, uncovered, until it’s bubbly and beginning to brown on top.
- Serve with a veggie or a salad, and you’ve got dinner!
This post is linked up with the Tasty Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday blog carnivals.
We enjoy chicken and rice casseroles so I’m looking forward to trying this one. Our favorite is from Simply Recipes blog, (sorry if I’ve already mentioned it in a previous comment…I just can’t remember!). It has more ingredients but it so worth the effort.
I love a good casserole and chicken & rice are staples I always have around. I look forward to making this very soon. Thanks for sharing!
Are you using salted or unsalted butter? I’ve made the mistake of not asking people before and then when I add the salt the recipe calls for mine ends up way too salty.
I usually don’t pay attention. Probably salted. The nice thing about this dish is you can taste it before you cook it b/c there is no raw meat in it, so you can get the flavoring right before it bakes.
Sounds good. I never have unsalted butter in the house. It just doesn’t taste like butter!
LOL. Sometimes I buy both, and use unsalted for baking and cooking, but sometimes I forget and just have salted around. I think I used salted in this dish b/c I haven’t had unsalted around for a while.
Yum! This looks great. I think I’d add some sauteed onions and perhaps parsley, maybe carrots, too. Then again, I have a hard time leaving any recipe as-is!