Chicken and rosemary rice casserole with a cheesy topping
Al in one pleasing chicken casserole.
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- 1 onion, thinly diced
- 800 g chicken breasts, bone in, halved and skinned
- 1/2 tsp black pepper,
- 500 ml (2 cups) chicken stock
- 15 ml (1 tbsp) butter
- 6 baby marrows, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 6 yellow patty pans, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 750 ml (3 cups) Spekko Long Grain Parboiled Rice
- 5 ml (1 tsp) chopped rosemary leaves
- 1 1/2 tbsp flour
- 375 ml (1 ½ cups)milk
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) grated cheese
- 1/4 tsp salt
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Lightly coat pan with cooking spray.
- Add onion to the pot and sauté, stirring until soft.
- Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken, meat side down, to pot. Cook until browned both sides.
- Add stock to pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the chicken is done. Remove chicken from pan, reserving stock/sauce in pot. Let chicken cool, bone and shred.
- Place chicken in a large bowl. Bring stock / sauce to a boil. Cook, uncovered, until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 10 minutes). Â Add the reduced stock to the chicken.
- Melt butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add patty pans; sauté until lightly browned, stirring frequently.
- Add party pans mixture to the cooked rice.
- Add rosemary to the chicken mixture, and toss gently to combine. Then add the rice and patty pan mix.
- Place flour in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth; bring to a boil. Cook until thick, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat; let stand 30 seconds.
- Add 1/4 cup cheese; stir with a whisk until smooth.
- Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, milk mixture, and salt to chicken mixture and stir to combine.
- Spoon mixture into a casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese over rice mixture.
- Bake at for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove casserole from oven.Â
- Preheat oven, grill casserole 5 minutes or until golden.
- Use bone-in chicken for this recipe. This allows for more flavour depth as well as ensuring that it does not over-cook quickly).
- Any variant of Spekko leftover rice can be used in this recipe.
From the Spekko kitchen