Broccoli, Chicken, Rice, Cheese Casserole Recipe

The name I am calling it above, is the name I came up with for it. I found this recipe on Cooking Light/My Recipes. On there they are calling it Broccoli and Rice Casseroles. Too plain and boring for me, and I changed some things so it was no longer Casseroles, just Casserole. Below is the link to the original recipe.

Broccoli & Rice Casseroles

I changed quite a few things, which I will note below as I go through.

You Will Need:
-2 cups milk (I only used 1/4 cup, and below will explain why)
-1 cup water (I used just over a cup, explained below)
-1 (3 1/2 ounce bag) boil in bag long grain rice (I used non bagged minute rice)
-3 cups small broccoli florets (I used frozen not fresh)
-Cooking Spray
-1/3 cup onion
-1/3 cup celery
-1/3 cup green pepper (I used a whole small green pepper so it was probably closer to 1/2 cup)
-1/4 cup (2 ounces) 1/3 less fat cream cheese (which is called neufchatel that I use)
-2 ounces light processed cheese, cubed (I found a brand called Cabot 75% reduced fat sharp cheddar)
-2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken breast (I used regular chicken breasts, not rotisserie, and it was chunked not shredded, and ended up being about a 1 1/2 cups)
-Salt, pepper, and any other spices to taste (I always use garlic powder and onion powder also)
-1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:
**This recipe looks like it has lots of ingredients, but it's really simple to make. The whole process only took just over 30 minutes to prepare! Well worth it!**
-Preheat oven to 375
-For me, I had to still cook my chicken, so if you have rotisserie chicken, skip this part. But I just sprayed a skillet with cooking spray and cooked my chicken until fully done.



-Combine milk and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, add rice, cook 10 minutes. Remove rice and keep warm. Add broccoli to same water/milk mixture and cook 5 minutes or until soft. Drain. Discard water/milk mixture. (I completely skipped this step, because I did the following. I boiled my cup of water, just over a cup actually because 3 1/2 ounces of rice is about 1 1/8 cups, then added my rice and covered it and set it off to the side. Then I stuck my bag of frozen broccoli in the microwave to cook. It's in a steamer bag.)





-Heat a dutch oven coated with cooking spray. Not exactly sure what a dutch oven is, but I just use a big pan. Works just as well. Saute the onion, celery and green pepper about 5 minutes.



-Add the cream cheese and processed cheese stirring until melted.





-It says to then remove from the heat, which I did, but had to put back on the stove because the cheese thickened up way too quickly. This is also where I added 1/4 cup milk to make it a little more creamy because it was so thick.
-Stir in the chicken, broccoli, and rice, and season with salt, pepper, and any other spices.





-It says then to scoop about a cup of the mixture into 4 seperate ramekins, which I don't have, so I put all mine into one glass baking dish. I believe, it's possibly like a 10x5 or something like that. It's a meatloaf size pan. Then sprinkle each with one tablespoon of parmesan cheese, or just use the whole 1/4 cup if you're doing it like me, all in one dish.



-Bake for 10-15 minutes.

This recipe was absolutely delicious. It only took about a half hour to prepare, and only baked for 10-15 minutes. It was pretty filling too since it was full of rice and vegetables. For one ramekin full, or for a 1/4 of the whole mixture in my case, it was only 310 calories. And it looked like a lot more than a cup of food. Possibly 1 3/4 cup to 2 cups of food. And it was very yummy. We will be having it again.