My Sis is Hungry: Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

AHHHHH.. my sister making me dinner.  How I love it.  When she didn’t make it for me one week the husband and teen both asked where the Sisters dinner was.  The problem is they asked this while in the process of eating the meal I created.  Rude people. 

Rude. 

Anyway, they were excited to have a meal to review (which turns out is different than the critique’s they give my meals on a daily basis).. insert eye roll here. Lets cut right to the ending.  This meal was delicious. It looked like tuna noodle casserole (aka ugly pile of mush) but was fantastic.  It got high reviews all across the board.

Brooke’s first initial bites got a typical teenager response of “kinda good” .  Which for a 15 year old is high praise.   She didn’t love that it had celery.  “too much celery” was her thoughts.  She wished it had broccoli instead.  I’m sure that would have been just as good.  She also wished it had cheese.  She then got up and added some cheese to it and decided it wasn’t necessary and was just as good without it.  I also tried it with the cheese just to test it and agree with her - not necessary because it was delicious without. 

The husband also liked it a lot.  He gave it a “pretty darn good”.  Again high praise.  After he ate 2 servings of it he commented that he hopes it was healthy.  If it's healthy he gives it an 8.  If not healthy that takes it down to a 7 ½.  He has to save those extra calories for his bag of dorito’s as snack later.  As a separate note, he doesn’t like rice but for some reason in this mush of sauce you honestly couldn’t really even pick out the rice.  It could have been pasta.  It was all just a serving of mixed flavors. 

All in all this was really good and we liked it all around.  It had plenty of sauce and seemed like something I could actually make for my family.  I’m sure if I made it though they would ask where the Sister meals were, but still worth a try.

CHICKEN AND WILD RICE CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

• 1 6oz. package long grain and wild rice mix
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 10.5 oz. can condensed chicken with white and wild rice soup or cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
• 2 Tablespoons snipped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
• 1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare rice mix according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350'F. In a large skillet, cook onion and celery in melted butter over medium heat until tender. Stir in soup, sour cream, wine, and basil. Stir in cooked rice and chicken.
3. Transfer mixture to an ungreased 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 35 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving: 468 cal, 43 g. carb, 29 g. pro.

*Jill here - I used a 90-second microwavable bag of Uncle Ben's long grain and wild rice mix, low-fat cream of chicken soup, light sour cream, rotisserie chicken, 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend, and grated parmesan. It seemed a little bland (before baking) and since it's for my sis (and we know they like things not bland haha) I added a few dashes of Frank's hot sauce, coarse salt, and coarse pepper, oh - and I sprinkled some garlic powder on the onions and celery while they were cooking. 

original recipe found here.