Aunt Kathy's Creamy Chicken & Rice Casserole

At our July 2021 Merrill Family reunion in AF,  my aunt, Kathryne Whitford, served this family favorite to everyone, and others asked her for her recipe, and I have included it here in mostly her own words. She prepared it for the crowd in slow cookers and rice cookers, instead of the her standard one dish casserole recipe. It was fabulous. Find the slow cooker instructions below. Yum!!

1-2 boneless chicken breasts and/or boneless thighs, etc. Cut up chicken to desired size, typically 2” squares. 
2 cans of cream of chicken Campbell’s soup and 1 can of Cream of Celery soup
one packet of dried onion soup
seasoning for chicken as desired. 
1 1/2 cup of rice

( I often soak cut chicken in a kosher salt brine for an hour or 2 but no necessary)

Pour rice into greased 9x11” baking pan. ( I use Pam) 
Heat up soup of 3 cans n add about 2 can fulls of water to mixture. Stir while heating till almost bubbling. 

Pour 1/2 soup mixture over rice n stir in pan.  Place chicken pieces on top of soup. Add remaining soup to cover chicken. Sprinkle dry onion soup mixture over top of casserole. Cover tightly with foil etc. 

Bake at 375 for about 80-90 minutes till chicken is tender. The rice should be very moist.  Let sit for about 15-20 minutes. 

Enjoy n eat.

Slow cooker instructions- combine chicken breats with soup and dry onion soup mix, adding the cream cheese when mostly done. Serve OVER prepared rice. 

Hawaiian Haystacks - A major family FAVORITE!

Click on this image for another blogger's recipe

I'm a dump cook, I'll completely admit. Hawaiian Haystacks is a very flexible recipe, very forgiving even. I make it so many different ways that I didn't realize I wasn't following a recipe. But since it's been the birthday request of my oldest son for most of his life, I should have it documented! So here's my attempt.

Hawaiian Haystacks Gravy

1-2 pcs chicken (breast, thigh, whatever, you'll be removing the bones if there are any)

Boil the chicken in (3-4 cups?) salted water (maybe 3/4 tsp salt?) until cooked through.

Remove the chicken and let it cool so you can chop/shred it up. SAVE the broth!!!

Bring the broth to a boil, and add:

• 1/2-3/4 c cornstarch or flour with 1 1/2-2 C water, mixed well

Allow this to thicken. After it's thickened, you may add any or none of the following - 

• The pineapple juice from the can of tidbits you plan on serving with the Hawaiian Haystacks
• A brick of cream cheese OR some sour cream OR neither
• A can of coconut cream...mmmmm, I love it when I add this!
• The diced or shredded chicken you just cooked - okay, I ALWAYS add this

(Instead of adding the thickener-flour & water-you may add a couple of cans of cream of chicken soup. But I like the freshly made stuff instead. If it needs more flavor, I add extra chicken bullion.)

Serve over hot rice (white or brown or mixed) with:

• Grated cheese
• Pineapple tidbits or mandarin oranges or both
• Chinese noodles
• Anything else you want, like:

• diced tomatoes
• diced peppers
• sliced green onion
• chopped celery
• sliced olives
• raisins/craisins
• chopped nuts
• shredded coconut (esp without added sugar)
• anything else you like

Mmmm! My WHOLE family totally loves this because you eat what you like. They're all salivating as I'm finishing this recipe! Coming up in a couple of days...too bad they all live away from home now!

Bruno's Brazilian Black Beans

We had an exchange student years ago from Rio de Janeiro. When wanted to share with us his favorite food from home, he called his mom and got this one.

2 C black beans
6 C water
1/2 lb bacon
1 tbsp salt

Boil until the beans are soft, about four hours.

Saute in a little oil:
1 onion, minced
3 cloves crushed garlic

Take one cup cooked beans, mash, add to the onion and garlic. Add to the remaining beans and simmer for half an hour. Serve over rice.

Common variation in Brasil - lay fried egg/s atop the rice and beans.

Japanese Fried Rice

From my friend, Cindy, mom of the friend of a couple of my boys'.


Prep Time: 30-40 minutes

3 T butter1/2 C carrots, shredded or diced1/2 C onion, diced1 1/2 C frozen peas, thawed (optional)4 eggs8 C cooked rice4 T soy saucesalt to tastepepper to taste
MELT 1 T of the butter in a frying pan. Saute carrot and onion in butter. Set aside in a small bowl. SCRAMBLE eggs over medium heat. Chop egg into pea-sized bits. MELT the remaining 2 TBSP of butter in the pan. Add rice, carrot, onion, and peas to egg. ADD the soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. COOK rice for 6-10 minutes over medium heat. Stirring every couple minutes.


Serves 6

Chicken and Broccoli “Stir Fry” in the Slow Cooker

Another one I have to try...original here.

Serving Size: 6
INGREDIENTS
2-3 lbs. chicken tenders
1/2 bottle stir fry sauce (about 1 cup) or more, if you like (I used Mandarin Sauce from Panda Express)
1 bunch broccoli, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced

INSTRUCTIONS
Place chicken in slow cooker. I start mine from frozen. Pour sauce over chicken. Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 6-7 hours. About an hour before serving, place broccoli and red pepper on top of chicken in slow cooker. Cover and let it finish cooking. Serve over rice.

Cilantro Lime Rice

2 T butter

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 2/3 C water

8 t chicken bouillon

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

2 t cumin

2 small cans diced green chilies

1 T lime juice

½ t pepper

3 ½ C rice

Saute onion, garlic, and butter until the onion is soft.  Add rice and water and all the other ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover with lid and simmer for about 20 minutes.

White Rice

1 cup white rice

2 cups water

3/4 tsp salt (optional - I don't add it)

 

Mix water, rice (and salt). Cover, bring to boiling.  Reduce heat.  Cover; simmer for 15 minutes.  Turn heat off, and let finish steam cooking for five more minutes.  Ready to serve.

Brown Rice

1 cup brown rice

2 1/4 cup water

3/4 tsp salt

Mix water, rice and salt. Cover, bring to boiling.  Reduce heat.  Cover; simmer for 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally, until water is absorbed.  Rice will be chewy.

EASY Crockpot Orange Chicken

Ingredients:
• 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 T ketchup
• 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 T brown sugar

In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup.

Pour the flour in a small bowl. Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.

Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken. The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot.

After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot. Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.

Serve over rice and even add veggies if you want a healthier meal. Enjoy!

Find this recipe and more pictures where I got it at:
http://team-t-adventures.blogspot.com/2010/03/crock-pot-orange-chicken.html

(I will be at least doubling this! sb)

Printable version here.

ADDITIONAL NOTE - I don't like using ketchup or sugar in such recipes, so I usually refer to some other Orange Chicken recipes and tweak the ingredients to suit me for that day, like the one at this website.

Pancit Stir Fry

I served an LDS mission to the Philippines, and fell in love with Pancit.  A Filipino friend (& caterer) told me how to make it. Thanks, Rod Villamil!

1 pkg pancit noodles (fine rice noodles, but I've also used fine bean noodles)

Soak noodles in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain.

With a little oil, stir fry bite sized meat, chicken, beef or pork, your choice.  Set aside.

In the same pan, and with a little more oil, stir fry in garlic, onion, veges (sliced onions, peppers, brocolli, whatever) together until just tender.  Add 1-2 cups bullion seasoned water, flavor depending on the meat you are using.  Add washed noodles on medium heat.  Toss gently (noodles break easily).  When al dente, fold in meat and veges. 

May add soy sauce if desired.*

Mmmm, good!

(Having served a mission in an Asian country, I recognize a BIG difference in soy sauce flavors.  My preference is La Choy - can't stand that Kikkoman brand!)

Pilafian's Rice Pilaf - The Ultimate Version

4 T butter*
1 handful fine egg noodles
1 (large) clove garlic, minced
1/2 C chopped onion
1 C sliced mushrooms
1/2 t dried dill weed
1 C white rice (regular uncooked)
2 C chicken broth
1/2 t (or to taste) salt
1/2 C lightly toasted pine nuts (optional)

1) Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir in noodles and let them brown (do not let butter of noodles burn). Add garlic, onion, mushroom and dill weed. Saute 3 minutes. Stir in rice and saute until it takes on a whitish, non-translucent appearance. (*I never use any more than 1/2 C butter, even when I make this with lots more rice!)
2) Meanwhile, heat the broth and salt to boiling in another pan. Pour over rice mixture and stir briefly. Cover pan tightly and simmer 25-30 minutes (steam will subside toward end of cooking time). Do not peek.
3) Remove pan from heat. Toss pilaf lightly; then cover pan, placing a dry cloth of paper towel between pan and lid to absorb moisture. Let stand 10 minutes (a very important step). Serve topped with pine nuts, if desired.

Makes 6 servings.

Printable version here.

Mom Howlett's Chicken Rice Casserole

1 chicken, cut up, and salted

2 1/2 c raw white rice

1 pkg each onion and chicken noodle soups (Lipton type)

4 c hot water

 

Spread rice on bottom of 9X13 pan. Sprinkle and mix soup mixes into rice. Lay chicken pieces on top of rice. Pour hot water over everything. Cover with foil, and bake in oven. You can take the foil off for the last half hour to brown top if desired. 4 hours at 250 or 1½ hours at 350 degrees F. 

 

Huge favorite!