My mother makes a really delicious chicken & wild rice casserole, with mushrooms added if she's making it for me (she's not a fan of mushrooms).  I ask her to make it for me every year for my birthday.  At some point it occurred to me that it must not be all that easy to make, because she doesn't make it very often.

One day I decided I wanted some of that casserole, but I didn't have her recipe, and so I went searching for another good one.  I settled on this one from EatingWell.com, and the first time I made it, I got an idea of why my mom doesn't make hers all that often.  In fact, this time I divided the recipe among 2 dishes in order to freeze one to have later without all the trouble.  It takes me, personally, quite some time to make this casserole, and I have to have someone around to keep the kidlet out of my hair too, simply because of all the prep work -- once all that's done and it's assembled in a dish to bake, it only bakes for 30 minutes!

Chicken, Mushroom & Wild Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup wild rice
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 leeks, chopped and rinsed
• 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup dry sherry (see Note)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups frozen French-cut green beans
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preparation

1. Combine water and rice in a small heavy saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, place chicken in a large skillet or saucepan. Add lightly salted water to cover and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a clean cutting board and let cool.
3. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large high-sided skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until just starting to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until their liquid has been released and has evaporated, 12 to 14 minutes. Add sherry, increase heat to high and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle the vegetables with flour and stir to coat. Add milk; bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Stir in Parmesan, sour cream, parsley, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch (or similar 3-quart) baking dish with cooking spray.
5. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Spread the rice in an even layer in the prepared baking dish. Top with the chicken, then green beans. Pour the sauce over the top and spread evenly. Sprinkle with almonds.
6. Bake the casserole until it is bubbling and the almonds are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

(As always, especially with EatingWell.com, see link for further details and other cooks' suggestions.)


I have made this one a few times now, and I love it; it's a very delicious dish, in my opinion.  I have made it with and without sherry, and I'm really not sure I can tell a difference.  This time I happened to already have some cooking sherry on hand, but if I didn't I probably wouldn't go to any great trouble to go buy some.

The first time I made it, I felt it could use more rice; the amount called for didn't even cover the bottom of the dish!  I have been playing around with that part of it, and I think 1 cup before cooking is a good amount, personally.  This time I also used half wild rice and half long grain brown rice, just because I had some on hand (previously I'd used all wild rice -- and I mean really just the black wild rice, not the mixture that is sometimes labeled "wild rice").  I also threw in some celery, carrot, and chives that I had in the refrigerator (used 1 stick each of celery and carrot, and later realized I could have added more, but I had been worried about making too much).  I substitute unflavored Greek yogurt for the sour cream, and I used 2 tablespoons dried parsley instead of chopping fresh.

Previously, I had grated my Parmesan cheese myself, but recently I discovered a brand of Parmesan (also comes with Romano) in the noodles-and-sauces aisle that doesn't contain anything but the cheese -- none of the anti-caking, anti-mold, and preservatives that most pre-shredded cheeses contain.  This leads me to wonder how those things can really be so necessary, if this one works just fine without them! Anyway, I used that kind this time, rather than grate my own, to save time and effort.  (I don't like using a shredder/grater -- it always gets my fingernails, and they're not even that long!)

By the time I'm halfway through step 3, the sauce is smelling so tasty I could just eat it by itself with a spoon!  For some reason I never seem to cook out all of the liquid as called for after the mushrooms and again after the sherry, but it still works out just fine every time, so I've stopped worrying about that and just been using the cooking times indicated in each step.  It thickens a little bit as it sits while I chop the cooled chicken, anyway.

As I mentioned before, this time I divided it in half between two 8"x8" glass dishes, to freeze one for later, and baked them together for 20 minutes instead of 30, based on advice I'd requested from my mother.  I checked it by tasting a couple of the green beans from the middle of the one we're eating from today, and they were done.