It was a bright spot on a stormy day
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Armed with a recipe from the Campbell’s Soup Co. plus some tips from my mom, I made a Cheesy Chicken & Rice Casserole this week, pleasing the Times Leader taste testers on a damp and dismal Tuesday.
“It has a very good flavor,” page designer Ashley Bringmann said. “And a rainy-day kind of feel.”
“Today was a perfect day for it,” reporter Margaret Roarty agreed, adding that she loves both rice dishes and chicken dishes.
“Savory and delightful,” news editor Roger DuPuis called it.
“It feels very clean to me; a clean, healthy meal,” reporter Hannah Simerson said. “You know what I mean?”
I knew what she meant; if you eat a lot of candy, or maybe too many french fries, that feels like the opposite of clean.
“It makes me feel satisfied but not weighed down,” Hannah continued to describe the casserole. “It was delicious.”
Sports reporter Kevin Carroll liked everything about the dish — except the green beans, which he carefully left on his plate.
“I never liked green beans,” he said, “but everything else was delicious. The chicken and rice coated wtih cheese, that was really good … I liked the corn, I liked the peas.”
“It’s very tasty,” columnist Bill O’Boyle added. “It reminds me of chicken pot pie, without the crust.”
The original recipe came from the Campbell’s Soup Co., and you can still find it at campbells.com.
But for years my mom has been holding on to a printed copy that looks like it was clipped from a 2005 magazine. While I’d never made it until this week, she’s made it many times — and over the years I’d hear about the ways she adapted it.
For example, although one of the recipe’s selling points seems to be the ease of using uncooked chicken and uncooked rice, my mom decided long ago that resulted in chicken that looked “too pale” when it came out of the oven. So she started to brown the chicken in a skillet before she added it to the baking dish.
Also, after the first time or two that she made the dish, she switched from white rice to brown. Brown rice requires a longer cooking time, so she parboils the rice before she adds that to the pan.
The adaptations continued. The first few times she made it, the family was unanimous in wishing for proportionately more rice and vegetables. So she basically doubled the rice and soup and vegetables (she uses frozen mixed) to make a big batch but only increased the chicken about 50 percent.
When I made the dish this week, I followed all of her adaptations — browning the meat, parboiling the rice, and adjusting the proportions, doubling just about everything but the meat. Actually, I more than doubled the cheese, because I knew that would please Mark.
As one more adaptation of my own, I diced a small onion to use in place of onion powder. Might as well go for the gusto.
And, of course, with all the doubling of ingredients, I had to use a bigger baking dish.
Now that you know all the ways my mom and I changed the recipe, I’ll leave you with the original, so you can make your own choices.
CHEESY CHICKEN AND RICE CASSEROLE
***
1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1 1/3 cups water
3/4 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, green beans, corn, peas) (about 9 ounces)
1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (4 small or 2 large cut in half lengthwise for thinner pieces)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 ounces)
Heat the oven to 375°F. While the oven is heating, stir the soup, water, rice, onion powder and vegetables in an 11 x 8 x2-inch baking dish. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Top the rice mixture with the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Cover the baking dish. Bake for 50 minutes or until the chicken is done and the rice is tender. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the cheese. Let stand for 10 minutes. Stir the rice mixture and season to taste before serving.