Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
Tags: American Cuisine, casserole, chicken
A Little Personal History:
I love a great casserole and this chicken, broccoli, cheese and rice casserole is one of my favorites.
Description:
This casserole is medley of broccoli, rice, cheddar cheese, white sauce and cooked cubed chicken.
Category: | Chicken, Casserole |
Servings: | 8 servings |
Time: | – Marinating: 4 hours (chicken) – Preparation: 30 minutes – Cooking: 40 minutes |
Equipment: | Cutting board and scissors or knifes, measuring cups and spoons, wooden spoon, steamer, grater, 2 holding plates, 4 small bowls, 2 medium bowl, large skillet, whisk, 12″x9″x3″ baking dish, plastic spatula, large serving spoon |
Difficulty: | Easy |
Ingredients:
- 8 chicken breast halves, cubes
- Buttermilk Marinade
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 2 cups Yellow Rice
- 2 cups White Sauce
- 1 package (10 oz.) frozen broccoli spears or fresh of same weight
- ½ lemon; juiced
- salt and pepper; to taste
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 cups Cheddar cheese; grated
- ¼ cup sliced almonds (optional)
Procedure:
- Marinade chicken breasts for four hours.
- With scissors or knife, cut chicken breasts length-wise and then into bite sized cubes.
- Add oil to skillet, over medium heat. When hot, but not smoking, add cubed chicken and saute with wooden spoon till cooked through. Set aside on holding plate.
- Cook rice per directions and set aside in medium bowl.
- Prepare full order of white sauce per instructions. Set aside in medium bowl.
- Steam broccoli per package directions; drain well. Set aside on holding plate.
- Squeeze lemon juice into small bowl. Add salt & pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Measure sour cream, set aside in small bowl.
- Grate cheese and set aside in small bowl.
- Slide almonds and set aside in small bowl.
- In large skillet, over low heat, heat white sauce, whisking until it barely simmers.
- Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice, salt & pepper. Fold in the sour cream and whisk till well blended. Set aside.
- Arrange broccoli in baking dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese; top with cubed chicken.
- Spread ½ of sauce over chicken and level surface with smooth spatula.
- Spoon or hand sprinkle cooked rice and smooth to level surface with spatula.
- Spread remaining sauce over rice and level surface with plastic spatula.
- Top with remaining cheese.
- Pre-heat oven to 400°F
- Bake dish for 40 minutes or until cheese begins to bubble and brown.
- During last 15 minutes of baking, top casserole with sliced almonds.
- Use spatula/large serving spoon to serve on individual plates.
Advanced Preparation:
- Steps 1 – 5 can be in advance, refrigerated or frozen till ready to make dish.
- Steps 6 – 10 can be done day of event, covered and refrigerated till ready to continue with preparation.
- Steps 11-17 can be done in advance, sealed and refrigerated. When ready to bake, continue with Steps 18-19. While I haven’t tried it yet, you can probably freeze everything at this point. If you bake frozen, you may want to reduce heat to 350°F and increase baking time to 1 hour. If anyone tries this, let me know how it goes.
- The entire dish can be prepared in advance, refrigerated and re-heated.
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