This is a favorite in our house for a couple of reasons. First, it’s really easy to make AND it’s easy to make double/triple batches of it. It freezes well so you can easily cook once and stock up on your freezer ready meals. It hides a ton of delicious veggies and our kids LOVE it (who doesn’t love a meal where kids eat broccoli without complaint?) and finally, it’s a “one pan meal” so cleanup is super easy.
I hope you enjoy this one as much as we do!
Ingredients
- 2 C of rice (we like to use 1 1/3 C of brown rice and 2/3 C wild rice in ours)
- 4 C of chicken stock
- 3 C of shredded chicken
- 2 Bags of Frozen Broccoli Floretts (about 32 oz)
- 2-3 C of shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 TBSP Olive Oil
- 1/2 TBSP of Fox Point Seasoning*
- 1 TBSP of Shallot Pepper Seasoning*
*if you don’t have these, you can substitute salt, pepper and onion powder to taste
Instructions (non-freezer meal)
Preheat the oven to 350F
Add the rice and the chicken stock to a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the moisture is absorbed and the rice is cooked. (Or, cook this in a rice cooker.) Â When the rice is finished, add the olive oil and fluff the rice until it is thoroughly coated.
While the rice is cooking, chop the broccoli florets into small pieces. This can be done while the broccoli is still frozen.
In a large bowl, combine the oil coated rice, the broccoli, and the shredded chicken. Mix these together until they are evenly distributed. Add in the seasoning and stir again until it evenly coats the mixture.
Place about 1/3 of the mixture as a layer in the bottom of an oven safe dish (we like pyrex for these). Sprinkle a layer of cheese over the casserole. Repeat layering the mixture and cheese in the dish until it is used up (about 3 layers).
Bake in the oven uncovered for about 20 minutes, until warmed through and the cheese is melted.
Enjoy!
Freezer Meal Instructions
To make this into a freezer meal, follow the instructions above but layer the casserole in a freezer AND oven safe dish (we still like pyrex for this or you can use an aluminum pan). Then seal the pan and freeze until you are ready to eat.
To prepare after freezing: heat the oven to 400F. Cover the casserole tightly with foil and place in the oven. Cook for 50-60 minutes. For the last 10 minutes of cooking, remove the foil.
