Chicken and Wild Rice Hotdish

A delicious and simple hotdish of chicken and wild rice flavored with cream of mushroom soup.

Chase off the last of winter's chill with a hotdish.  This is a recipe my husband remembers his Mom making when he was younger.  We didn't have her recipe so we put this together as best as we could with his memories and my cooking experience (with some googling).

Chase off the last of winter's chill with hotdish. [Tweet this]

For this hotdish, I used all wild rice.  Some people use a wild rice mix with white or brown rice, but I wanted all wild rice.  I still had plenty of wild rice from my husband's last trip to Minnesota so that's what I used.  My husband found a family sized package of boneless skinless chicken thighs on sale so that's also what we used.  You could easily use chicken breast or a whole split chicken with or without skin and/or bones.  To add a little color but still keep this recipe simple I added some frozen broccoli. Then, of course, to make this a hotdish it needed cream of mushroom soup.

I see why hotdishes are so popular.  Hotdishes are hardy, simple, and taste amazing. This hotdish was exactly that.  It also made a big 9x13 pan full so it's plenty to feed a large family or just 2 people all week.

Hotdishes are hardy, simple, and taste amazing. [Tweet this]

Chicken and Wild Rice Hotdish

Ingredients:

2 cups dry wild rice, cooked
1 shallot, minced (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
2 10.5 oz cans cream of mushroom soup
2 10.5 oz cans full of milk
1 1 pound bag of frozen broccoli
12 chicken thighs

Preheat oven to 350F

Cook the wild rice in water or chicken broth until it's tender (I did this the night before).

Saute the shallot and garlic in a little butter or oil until tender and fragrant (if using).  Or you could also just use some garlic powder and onion powder.

In a large bowl mix the wild rice, shallot, garlic, soup, and milk until thoroughly combined.  Set aside.

Season the chicken thighs all over with salt and pepper and lightly sear on both sides in a frying pan or griddle. (This step may not be necessary but I didn't want to risk the chicken not cooking properly.  The whole hotdish bakes for an hour and gets very hot and bubbly so this may be an unnecessary step...use your judgment)

Pour the rice mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and smooth out. Top with the broccoli and lastly the chicken.

Bake at 350F for about 1 hour until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the soup mixture is bubbly and thickened.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.  Serve with side of your choice I served it with Sweet Dill Glazed Carrots (I'll post this recipe soon).

Enjoy.

For more hotdishes and casseroles check out:

Tater Tot Hotdish ---------------------

Unstuffed Pepper      Casserole      ------------------

Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

Spinach Pasta            Bake        ------------------

For more wild rice recipes check out:

Wild Rice Cherry Pecan Salad

Spiced Eggplant and Mushrooms

Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

Linked to:  Pretty Pintastic, Show Off, Best of the Weekend, Treasure Box, Best of Blogosphere, 2 Cup, LouLouGirls, Teach Me, Full Plate, Freedom, Food Friends Fri

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Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

A creamy, meatless, soup with mushrooms and wild rice.  It's warm comfort food for a cold night.

Wild rice soup is a dish I learned about in Minnesota.  It's perfect for wintertime because it's warm, creamy, hardy, and comforting.  This is comfort food at it's best.  Usually it's made with chicken but I used inexpensive mushrooms.  Not only were the mushrooms less expensive than meat but I hoped they would help lower the calorie count of this creamy soup.  I used real cream but you could lighten it more by using half and half or milk but I love the comfort and creaminess of the real stuff (and so does my husband the Minnesotan).  This soup has great fiber from the wild rice which gives the soup a wonderful chewy component that makes it very satisfying.  It's a meal of a soup.  Add some crackers if you like and this soup will make you feel warm, full, and satisfied.

Warmup w/ Minnesotan #comfortfood Mushroom & #WildRiceSoup  [Tweet this]

Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 cups sliced mushrooms (about 20-30 mushrooms)
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/4 cup flour
4-6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup dry wild rice, cooked until soft (about 3-4 cups cooked)
4 oz cream

Saute the vegetables in butter, in a large stock pot, until tender.  Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until the mushrooms soften.  Sprinkle on some salt and pepper.

Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two more to cook out the raw taste of the flour but not darken it at all.  Then pour in 4 cups broth.  Let the soup just come to a boil and reduce heat to simmer.

Add the cooked rice and allow the soup to simmer until thickened (add more broth if it looks too thick) then add cream.  Heat through, taste for seasoning (add more salt, pepper, and/or thyme as needed), and remove from heat.

Serve immediately with crackers.  Makes about 6 servings.

Enjoy.

For more wild rice recipes check out:

Chicken & Wild Rice Hotdish

Spiced Eggplant & Mushrooms

Wild Rice Cherry Pecan Salad

For more comfort food check out:

Chili con Carne

Loco Moco

Tater Tot Hotdish

Linked to:  Best of the Weekend, Teach Me, Lou Lou Girls, 2 Cup, Tasty, Tickle my Tastebuds, Freedom, Foodie Friends

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Wild Rice Cherry Pecan Salad

A salad of wild rice, dried cherries, and pecans tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette.  It makes a great side dish or lunch.

Wild rice reminds me of Minnesota and when I think of Minnesota I think of family.  My husband is from Minnesota and we lived there for a few years.  Much of his family is still in Minnesota and one of my favorite places to go (besides the cities) is Lengby.  Lengby is up north between Bemidji and Fargo and my husband's cousin (P) has a cabin on a lake up there.  We would visit as often as possible to fish, hang out, and just get out of the cities.  It's so relaxing up there and P is laid back and so much fun to be around.

Wild rice reminds me of Minnesota.  [Tweet this]

Wild rice growing in the Mississippi river

Not far from Lengby are the head waters of the Mississippi River.  Being from North Carolina I always thought of the Mississippi being this huge, massive, river.  I thought it was so cool to be able to step over the Mississippi where it was barely a creek.  The head waters are also a great place to canoe.  One summer I talked my husband into taking a 2 day canoe trip.  We had grand plans of going really far but that summer the river was kind of low and not easy to get down.  We still went a pretty good ways, camped overnight and made great memories.  The thing I remember most is where we put in and how much wild rice was clogging the river.  It didn't even look like a river, more of a swampy grassland and we had trouble figuring out which way to go at first.  I had never seen wild rice growing like that before and now when I think about MN I think about wild rice.  So on my husband's most recent trip to Minnesota I asked him to get some wild rice (it's much easier to find in stores, and cheaper, there).  This is the first recipe I made with the wild rice he brought home.

Made with Minnesota wild rice.  [Tweet this]

Wild Rice Cherry Pecan Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup dry wild rice
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/4 cup chopped green onions
*Raspberry vinaigrette

*Raspberry Vinaigrette:  mix 1 tbsp raspberry jam with 2 tsp balsamic vinegar until smooth.  Rapidly whisk in 2 Tbsp olive oil until emulsified (alternatively put all ingredients in a jar and shake).  You can make more vinaigrette just keep the proportion of oil to vinegar 3:1 and adjust the raspberry jam to your liking.

Rinse the wild rice under cool water in a fine mesh strainer.  Place rinsed rice in a large sauce pan and cover with about 4 cups of water and a pinch of salt (or you can use broth).  Bring water to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour until rice is tender. Drain rice and allow to cool.

In a large bowl toss and mix the cooled rice with the cherries, pecans, and onions (finely minced shallot would be delicious as well).  Lastly stir in the vinaigrette a little at a time until dressed to your liking.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Serve cold or at room temperature.  Makes 4-6 servings.

Enjoy.

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