Nanny's chicken and rice casserole

This classic casserole is warm, rich, and made with just 4 pantry ingredients. You can put it together in a few minutes and then pop it in the oven and leave it alone to bake. Leftovers keep and reheat well, making this a slam dunk recipe for a busy weeknight!

• 2 150 g cans chicken
  
  
• 1 cup white rice
  
  
• 1 56 g package onion soup mix
  
  
• 1 284 mL can cream of mushroom soup
  
  
• 1 1/2 cups water

1. Preheat oven to 325F, and grease a casserole pan with butter or cooking spray.
   
   
2. Drain canned chicken, and spread chicken evenly along the bottom of the casserole pan. Pour rice over top of the chicken, and sprinkle both with the entire packet of onion soup mix.
   
   
3. Mix cream of mushroom soup and water in a medium bowl. Pour over chicken and rice.
   
   
4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until rice is fully cooked, around 1 hour.

• You can make this recipe with raw chicken instead of canned. Season 3 chicken breasts or boneless thighs with salt and pepper, and lay at the bottom of the greased casserole dish. Cover with the rice, onion soup packet, and cream of mushroom soup with water and bake until chicken and rice are both cooked through- about an hour.
  
  
• Regular white rice is reccomended for this recipe; you can try it with instant rice, but the texture may be effected. You can also use brown rice, though you'd want to add a little more liquid, and let the casserole bake for longer.

This recipe is very flexible, and can be modified to your taste! Suggested variations:

• Use cream of chicken soup or cream of celery soup, instead of cream of mushroom.
  
  
• Add fresh or frozen vegetables; broccoli florettes are a great option!
  
  
• Use a packet of gravy mix instead of onion soup mix
  
  
• Make with milk instead of water, for a richer flavour
  
  
• Add a sprinkle of cheddar cheese to the top of the casserole in the last 10 minutes or so of baking

• Cool casserole completely, and store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Recipe adapted from Utah Food Bank

Food is Too Expensive! was funded by the City of Saskatoon through our Healthy Yards partnership, the Cyril Capling Trust Fund of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, and the Department of Plant Sciences. Focus group research to inform this work was collected by CHEP. Thank you all for helping us make healthy food more accessible!