I should get a food icon...
Man, I am so not hungry it's not even funny. I got Panera for lunch and, well, are you familiar with the phrase "food baby?" Yeah. I was at least five months along after that meal. Though I will never regret the amazing baked potato soup they serve on Wednesdays. Anyway, it's unfortunate that that meal stole my attention from dinner, because I made my mom's chicken and rice casserole, and once again it turned out- and I definitely don't use this word lightly in regards to my cooking- perfect. Here, lemme give you the recipe, because it's delicious as well as fairly easy to make.
INGREDIENTS
1 box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice Original Recipe
2 cups of chicken breast cubed
1 Tbsp of butter
1 1/3 cups of chopped onion
1 cup of half & half
1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup of chicken broth
1 tsp of salt (add black pepper to taste)
DIRECTIONS
1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Add the uncooked chicken to the pot of rice. (Seriously, do that. The first time I made this I thought that was a typo, but you really do just toss the uncooked chicken in with the rice and it all cooks up nicely together.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. While the rice and chicken are cooking, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook over low heat.
3. Add the flour, half & half, and chicken broth. Keep the heat on and stir until the sauce thickens, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to keep it from getting gummy down there. (I love adding flour to stuff and watching it thicken, it's like a science experiment.)
Pictures! This is the white sauce and the chicken and rice mixture in media res:
4. Stir the chicken and rice into the sauce when they're done cooking. (If you don't know, that's when the water has entirely or almost entirely boiled out of the pot.)
5. Dump it all in a greased 2-quart casserole dish. Bake it uncovered in the oven for 30-ish minutes, basically until it's a bit browned on top.
Finished product. You can't see, but it's sizzling. Nice:
This is seriously one of my top five favorite dishes from when I was a kid. I'm more than a little relieved I can make it myself. It goes fine with any green vegetable you like (broccoli, peas, green beans, whatever) and it makes perfect leftovers too- I can get about four meals out of it. I like to eat mine piping hot, so you can feel it on the way down. Fantastic.
P.S. I have no idea what the nutritional content of this dish is. My feeling is that anything that tastes this good can't be too good for you. But oh well!
INGREDIENTS
1 box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice Original Recipe
2 cups of chicken breast cubed
1 Tbsp of butter
1 1/3 cups of chopped onion
1 cup of half & half
1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup of chicken broth
1 tsp of salt (add black pepper to taste)
DIRECTIONS
1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Add the uncooked chicken to the pot of rice. (Seriously, do that. The first time I made this I thought that was a typo, but you really do just toss the uncooked chicken in with the rice and it all cooks up nicely together.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. While the rice and chicken are cooking, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook over low heat.
3. Add the flour, half & half, and chicken broth. Keep the heat on and stir until the sauce thickens, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to keep it from getting gummy down there. (I love adding flour to stuff and watching it thicken, it's like a science experiment.)
Pictures! This is the white sauce and the chicken and rice mixture in media res:
4. Stir the chicken and rice into the sauce when they're done cooking. (If you don't know, that's when the water has entirely or almost entirely boiled out of the pot.)
5. Dump it all in a greased 2-quart casserole dish. Bake it uncovered in the oven for 30-ish minutes, basically until it's a bit browned on top.
Finished product. You can't see, but it's sizzling. Nice:
This is seriously one of my top five favorite dishes from when I was a kid. I'm more than a little relieved I can make it myself. It goes fine with any green vegetable you like (broccoli, peas, green beans, whatever) and it makes perfect leftovers too- I can get about four meals out of it. I like to eat mine piping hot, so you can feel it on the way down. Fantastic.
P.S. I have no idea what the nutritional content of this dish is. My feeling is that anything that tastes this good can't be too good for you. But oh well!