Chicken Casserole (with Rice & Stuffing)

This recipe came to our kitchen via a recipe from my sister-in-law's mother, Janet.  My mom raved and raved about how good that "chicken and rice casserole" was until she finally got the recipe, but she had never tried to make it.

A couple of weeks ago, everybody had a rough day and mom decided she wanted this casserole for dinner (note: in my opinion, this dish qualifies as "comfort food"), so I set out to make it happen. We had all the ingredients and it was a very easy casserole to put together; although, it's more "adventurous" than you would expect because there are no quantities listed for some ingredients - you more or less have to wing it.  You can either go on a safari through the bush on your own with this recipe, or you can check out my notes (at least what I remember .... it's been a while) below the recipe for what I did when I made it.

The casserole turned out just great and we ate about half of it when it came out of the oven. The rest was put in the fridge for dinner the next night. We ended up with company the next night and I pulled out the leftover casserole, poured maybe 1/4th of a cup of chicken broth over the top of the stuffing to add a little moisture, then covered it with foil and re-heated it in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. It came out really hot .... and it was still delicious.

Here's the recipe ..... it's a good one to make ahead and freeze or for feeding a crowd:

Chicken Casserole (with Rice & Stuffing)

(Janet)

Use 9 x 13 pan
Freezes well
Serves 6 - 8
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken or 4 chicken breasts
• Onion
• Celery
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 small package of Pepperidge Farm Dressing
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup milk
• white instant rice (brown 'instant' rice also works great)
• chicken broth

Directions:

1. Cook chicken in celery & onions.
2. Cut chicken into small pieces.
3. Cover the bottom of the dish with one layer of instant rice.
4. Pour 1 cup of broth over rice.
5. Put chicken over rice.
6. Mix the soups and milk together and pour over rice/chicken.
7. Melt butter and with some broth, mix with dressing, enough to make it moist.
8. Cover the top of the casserole with dressing.

Cooking notes for quantities I used:

• 4 chicken breasts - frozen ones that we thawed
• 1 whole small-medium onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• We didn't have white instant rice, but we had brown and that turned out just great. I covered the bottom of the dish nicely with it.
• I used more than 1 cup of broth over the rice - I felt like I should use enough to assure that all of the rice was 'sitting in broth' ..... the last thing I wanted was dry, hard rice in the casserole.
• 1 (16 oz.) package of Pepperidge Farm Dressing which made more than enough to top the casserole and I just added broth until I liked the consistency of the stuffing - it wasn't too soggy, but I didn't want it to be too dry, either.