This recipe is similar to my mom’s, but I did make some changes. She used cream of chicken soup for the sauce, but I make mine from scratch. And my mom didn’t put rice in the pan either. She just cooked it separately and then we served it over rice.
I like to combine the rice with the casserole, but you do have to think ahead and start cooking the rice about an hour before you start any of your other prep. So sometimes it’s nice to serve it separately so you can cook the rice while you’re cooking the casserole.
To make three cups cooked rice, you’ll need about 1 cup of uncooked rice for most varieties. I like to use brown rice when I make this casserole. I soak it overnight and still use the amount of water called for on the packaging. Learn about the benefits of soaking your grains here. Brown rice never turns out for me unless I soak it overnight or add more water than what is called for.
I use homemade chicken bone broth, raw milk from Real Foods Market, Redmond Real Season Salt, leftover chicken from a pasture-raised whole roast chicken that I’ve made earlier in the week, and Lundberg Organic Short Grain Brown Rice.
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup whole milk, divided
- 1 tsp season salt
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups cubed or shredded precooked chicken
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 cups fresh broccoli florets
- 3 cups cooked rice
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Grease a 9×13 baking dish.
- Heat the chicken broth and ½ cup of the milk in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Whisk the other ½ cup milk with the season salt and flour.
- Add the flour mixture to the broth and milk in the saucepan and whisk until a smooth, creamy sauce forms.
- Spread the cooked rice evenly in the bottom of the baking dish.
- Place your chicken on top of the rice.
- Put the broccoli in boiling water for 1 minute or until it turns bright green.
- Place the broccoli on top of the chicken.
- Pour the liquid mixture over the chicken and broccoli in your baking dish.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove aluminum foil and sprinkle cheese over casserole.
- Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
- Serve hot.
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Karlen says
I love this! I really get annoyed when people rate a recipe and comment on all the changes they made to it. However, being a pescetarian, I substituted vegetable broth and used 1.5lb of diced mushrooms instead of chicken. I never thought to try cooking the rice separately. I might try that next time and there would be more room for broccoli!
Hi Karlen,
Those sound like yummy substitutions. I may steal your ideas and make a vegetarian version too!