Born and bred in the Midwest…casseroles are just sort of indoctrinated in you from childhood.
There is just something about them that gets you through the winter I think 😉
A couple years ago, I took my mom’s chicken divan recipe that I grew up loving, and tweaked some things to make it more real food friendly. It is just as good, and reminds me of childhood!
Don’t be intimidated about making your own cream of chicken soup to use instead of the canned. It is SO easy, takes very little time, and tastes just as good. No preservatives, MSG, or BPA laden cans!
Let me know how it turns out! Happy snow days to you!
a simple real food recipe :: classic chicken casserole
Author: Renee - www.theSIMPLEmoms.com
Ingredients
- 3-4 TB friendly fat to cook in (butter, lard, coconut oil. I actually used bacon grease left from the morning this time.)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 4-5 medium carrots, diced
- 2-3 celery stalks, diced
- 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tsp all purpose seasoning
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt
- 2-3 cups broccoli, chopped (I just thaw out one bag of the frozen organic broccoli from Costco)
- ½ cup organic long grain white rice
- 2-ish cups cooked chicken, chopped (I use leftover chicken from my crockpotted or roasted chicken from the week)
- 1 quart homemade condensed cream of chicken soup (OR 2 cans. See Kitchen Tips for my recipe – VERY easy! If you go for the canned just be mindful of ingredients and BPA containers.)
- ⅓ cup water
- Optional bread crumbs or almond flour with pats of butter to top (I used almond flour this time since that is what I had around)
Instructions
- Saute the onion, carrot, and celery in your friendly fat of choice for about 7 minutes. Throw a few pinches of sea salt over them while they cook to bring out their juices and sweeten.
- Add the garlic, all purpose season, and sea salt and cook for a couple minutes.
- Put the cooked veggie mixture in a medium mixing bowl and add the broccoli, rice, chicken, cream of chicken soup, and water, and stir to combine.
- Pour the mixture in a buttered 9x13 baking dish (sprinkle the bread or almond flour topping if you wish), and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it cool about 5-10 minutes before serving.
Kitchen Tips:
- HERE is my condensed cream of chicken soup recipe! It is too easy! And it makes about 8 cans of soup so you have plenty for the freezer.
- Prep the night before to lighten the load! Cut and cook up the veggie mixture so all you have to do the next day is combine everything in the baking dish and bake!
- HERE is how you can crockpot a chicken every week or so and have leftover meat for meals like this!
- You definitely could add cheese to this! We are on quite a light budget these days and quality cheese is pretty expensive so we do without, but indulge if you can! It works to sprinkle cheese for the top of the casserole as well.
- Change up the veggies! I do peas quite often as well if I don’t have enough broccoli.
- Read THIS on why I choose white vs brown rice.
YOUR TURN!
What wintery meals do you remember eating growing up?
This post was shared at Fat Tuesday!
Sabrina
January 31, 2014 at 12:04 pmLooks delish. I need to stock up on these recipes for after baby is born!
Renee
February 19, 2014 at 7:39 amYes! For sure! Congrats on the sweet babe Sabrina!
joanna garcia
January 28, 2014 at 9:46 amwow did not know how easy it was to make your own cream of chicken soup! def better than the cans! love this recipe! I love anything w chicken and broccoli!
Kimberley O
January 28, 2014 at 7:06 amI love that you make this so versatile using the different oils and mixing up the veggies from time to time!