Monday, May 23, 2011

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Last week I came across some chicken thighs marked down to $.79/lb. Though I prefer boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I couldn't pass up savings like that! I used some mushrooms from my Bountiful Basket for this easy dinner:


Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole
2 slices bacon
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb chicken thighs, trimmed of excess skin (or remove skin completely)
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice
6 oz brown mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered or sliced
3 cups hot chicken broth, or enough to cover chicken
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp chopped parsley, for garnish

Microwave bacon on high (100% power) 1 minute. Chop and transfer to a 4 1/2 qt. slow cooker. Add olive oil and spread evenly on bottom. Place chicken in slow cooker, skin side down. Add remaining ingredients in order given except parsley. Cover, cook on LOW 4-5 hours or until rice is tender. Uncover and let stand 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper if desired. Remove skin from chicken before serving, if desired. Garnish with chopped parsley.

**I ended up cooking about 5 lbs of chicken so I added some to the top of all the ingredients as well. I chopped the extra cooked chicken and plan on using it throughout this week in other meals.

****You can make this as an EASY freezer meal!****

For best results use boneless, skinless chicken cut into 1-inch pieces. Microwave bacon on high (100% power) 1 minute. Transfer to Gallon sized freezer bag. Add olive oil and spread evenly on bottom. Place chicken in bag. Add remaining ingredients in order given, except parsley. Freeze up to 3 months.
To serve: defrost in refrigerator overnight and cook as above or run bag under hot water to loosen contents into slow cooker. Cook on LOW 6 to 7 hours, or until rice is tender.

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