Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli, & Rice Casserole
One of my favorite dishes growing up was my mom’s cheesy chicken broccoli and rice casserole. Thinking about it now brings back memories.
I get asked a lot, being a chef that I must eat gourmet food all the time. The answer is no. I grew up with the same food as everyone, loving my mom’s cooking! We do have our date nights without children, where we like going to nice restaurants and have fun talking about the food and critiquing it. But, then there is the food that we eat together as a family and these are the memories that we pass down to our children.
Now that I have children of my own, I love passing on the foods that I grew up with to them.
I decided to put a twist on my mom’s casserole, by adding in carrots. Haha!! Yes I am sneaking in the vegetables to my kids! Now Isabelle did eat this, but just not the broccoli. But me being sneaky she ate some and didn’t even know it!!
Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli, & Rice Casserole
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
- 1 cup Shredded Carrots
- 2 TBSP onion medium diced
- 2 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 TBSP Butter
- 1 TBSP Oil
- 1 TBSP Flour
- 1 Cup Cold Milk
- 4 ounces Mild Cheddar Cheese
- 4 ounces Monterrey Jack Cheese
For the Casserole:
- 12 ounces Chicken breast small diced
- 1 TBSP Butter
- 1 TBSP Safflower Oil
- 1/4 cup Chicken Stock
- 7 ounces Frozen Broccoli Florets
- 2 cups rice cooked
- cup breadcrumbs and melted butter about 1 panko and 2 oz. melted butter enough to coat the top of the casserole
- Instructions
- Cuisine: American | Recipe Type: Entree
Instructions
- For the rice, I used jasmine rice, but you can use whatever you like. Be sure to have this cooked up.
- Heat a large sauce pan with the butter and oil over medium heat.
- Add in the carrots, onions, and garlic. Cook until soft, about 12 minutes.
- Mix in the flour to absorb all the fat (this process is called singer (sanjay) this will become our thickening agent for our sauce)
- The consistency should be like wet sand-if it’s not add more oil or flour if needed
- Cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
- Whisk in the cold milk. Be sure to get the sides and all of the bottom of the pan. It will become thicker in this stage. Again, stirring constantly, cook for 8 minutes. Lower heat to medium low.
- Add in all the cheese. Mix well.
- Use a hand-stick blender to blend up the cheesy sauce. I did this due to my picky 3 year old. If you don’t have one you can use a blender, but just be careful due to all the heat-TRUST ME PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Reserve.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a saute pan, heat the butter and oil over medium high heat. Add in the chicken and cook for about 10 minutes. Add in the stock to deglaze the pan. This will release all the good brown tidbits at the bottom of your pan. Add the chicken liquid into your cheesy sauce, mix well. Reserve.
- In a large mixing bowl-mix together the sauce, chicken, frozen broccoli florets, and rice. Place the mix in a casserole dish, I used a 9 x13 inch baking dish.
- Mix together the breadcrumbs and melted butter.
- Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the casserole and bake in the preheated 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Oh my gosh the whole family loved this dish!