Chicken Divan Casserole

When you think of good old home cooked meals, what do you think of? Myself, I think of a gray-haired Betty Crocker type with a frilly, white apron pulling a steaming casserole out of the oven with red-checkered oven mitts. Yet, alas, here is the problem. I have a grand total of one casserole recipe on my regular dinner menu list. This was a flaw that had be fixed.

So today, I took on the casserole. I tried to find a recipe that had few ingredients, little prep time, was healthy, and, of course, sounded delicious. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

Chicken, cubed and cooked (4 breasts)
Rice (2 cups uncooked)
Pepper
Four-cheese Alfredo Sauce (thank you Classico Signature Recipes)
Broccoli (12 oz. frozen package)

1. Start boiling water for your rice. While the water is boiling, cube your chicken breasts. I cooked them over medium heat in a few teaspoons of olive oil, with a few dashes of pepper. While this is going, simultaneously start cooking your rice, and pop the cook-in the bag broccoli into the microwave. (If you can time this correctly, I’m impressed.)
2. Pour rice into a casserole dish; pour cooked broccoli on top of rice; pour cooked chicken cubes on top of that. Lastly, pour alfredo sauce lightly over the top, creating a thin layer over it all.
3. Cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

I imagine this would serve four. We had a lot of left-overs.

Recipe source: http://busycooks.about.com/od/precookedpoultryrecipes/r/chickendivancas.htm (I tweaked it a bit)

Suggestion: We peppered the final result, and it was really tasty.

The great casserole discovery: Sticking something in the oven, with nothing else to do in the kitchen for twenty-five minutes, I actually had a clean kitchen by the time dinner was ready. How’s that for feeling accomplished?

Not to say that I have a frilly, white apron, red-checkered oven mitts, or that my hair has started to gray, but I think I would have made a modern Betty Crocker proud.


(Click here for printable recipe)