Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Another Pinterest recipe.

It just sounded good.

Wild rice- love. Parmesan-love. Sour cream-love. Chicken-love.

A win win situation for me!

And perfect for a cold night.

So I headed on over to Better Homes and Garden and checked out the recipe behind the picture. (The picture on Pinterest, not on here above :)

As with any recipe, we had to make some adjustments.

The original recipe calls for celery.

My family isn't particularly crazy about celery, though I did have some for a recipe we are having tonight. I decided to just nix it. I am sure it gives the dish a nice little crunch. I just don't think my kids have recovered from the last casserole I made with water chestnuts. They still talk about that one ingredient with a distrust in their eyes.

Anyway, after all was said and done, the recipe was a hit. Even my pickiest eater who turned her nose up at it the first time she saw it ended up liking it to her dismay and even had seconds.

I will be making this again.

Ingredients:
1 box wild grain and rice, cooked according to box directions (this was the longest part of the process for us)

1 medium onion chopped (I just added some dried chopped onion later in the recipe for a little flavor; my family isn't big on a lot of onion)

1/2 cup celery chopped (optional for us :)

2 tbsp butter (only needed if you are sauteing the onion and the celery)

1 can cream of chicken soup (or you can use a can of chicken with white and wild rice soup...we stuck with the basic cream of chicken)

1/2 cup sour cream (I use light)

1/3 cup cooking white wine (can also use chicken broth instead...I just love the flavor of cooking wine)

1/2 tsp dried crushed basil (can use 2 tbsp fresh snipped basil instead)

2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey (I used about 3 boiled chicken breasts, shredded)

1/3 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese (I HIGHLY recommend shredding it "fresh"...YUM)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

If you are using onion and celery, saute first in the butter over medium heat in a skillet.

Combine the sour cream, cooking wine, cream of chicken soup, rice, chicken, and basil (and the sauteed ingredients if used) in the skillet or in a large bowl.

Spread in a 2 quart baking dish (not greased).

Top with shredded Parmesan cheese.

Bake (uncovered) for about 35 minutes.

Enjoy!

It makes about 4 "servings" but this was actually just right for our family of 6.

Oh, and our oldest had actually eaten dinner already at a school function, came home and smelled this, and insisted on eating some. I think he ate two bowls of it after having already eaten a dinner!

More soon,
Reba