Chicken and Rice Casserole

     My husband, like most of the men in my family, is almost strictly meat and potatoes. And when I say meat I mean beef.  Sometimes that can be a great thing, you know that you have a safe go to. But more than not it's a headache.  There is only so many ways known to man that you can cook a potato, and if there is another way I'm sure it's not the least bit good!  So trust me when I can stray away from that I run and I run fast!! 

   My husband does have a stronger bond with the chicken though.  That's a sigh of relief for me too because I do love chicken.. But chicken can be so.... bland!  Yes, I agree, it can be bland at times, but if you have the right tools and ingredients it can be an amazing dish!  Which brings me to the whole reason I'm writing this post!

Chicken and Rice Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cups rice

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

2 cups celery

1 Tbsp butter

2 cups undiluted cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup real mayonnaise ( not Miracle Whip)

2 Tbsp. finely chopped onion

2 cups chopped chicken, skinned and deboned

1 cup crushed corn flakes mixed with 2 Tablespoons of melted butter

  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Cook the chicken until tender, I use a pressure cooker or you can boil it. ( Another great idea is to get a cheap rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and that will save you a good 30 minutes!) While the chicken is cooking you'll want to cook the rice with the chicken broth until the rice is tender, roughly 20 minutes. And you'll need to cover that while it cooks!  

 By this time your chicken and rice should both be done. Set them both aside to cool.  

Next you'll want to lightly saute the 2 cups of celery in about 1 tablespoon of butter. There is no need to cook until tender this step is to just start the cooking process, it'll finish up in the oven.

Being very careful, it may still be hot, you'll want to remove the skin and bones from the chicken.  Give the meat a quick chop, you just want the pieces to be bite sized.  

In a large bowl you will just carefully mix the chicken, rice, sauteed celery, cream of mushroom soup, mayo, and chopped onion. Give it a good mix so everything is evenly distributed.   Place into a buttered casserole dish and top with the buttered corn flakes.  Bake for 45 minutes, covered.  Cool about 10 minutes before serving it'll be hot! Finally enjoy!