Bachelor Proof Chicken & Rice Casserole

By request this is an old college recipe I still make on occasion. It’s comforting so mock me if you must. Like most Bachelor Proof recipes, it’s intended to use simple ingredients that have a reasonable reasonable shelf life. Minimal preparation skills and keeps mess (in the form of preparation and equipment) down.  It can be frozen/stored and most importantly it is relatively cheap for the volume and nutition.

You can make this into real cuisine by replacing any of the canned or instant components with real, fresh ones. In fact, I suggest you try just that once you’re comfortable with the  Bachelor Proof version. Cooking is one part Chemistry, one part Confidence and one part Creativity.

This is the verbose version, with many comments.  I ramble, what of it? 🙂

Ingredients & Materials

• One Medium Pot
• One Medium Baking Dish or Pan
• 1 Can of Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 Can of Mixed Vegetables
• 1 – 1 ½ Cups of INSTANT Rice
• 2 Medium Chicken Breasts
• 1 Tube of Biscuits (I prefer buttermilk style)
• Olive Oil
• Seasoning:  Diced Garlic, Salt, Pepper, maybe oregano, experiment

Notes: Make sure you have condensed cream of chicken soup, NOT plain chicken broth or chicken noodle soup. It should be a thick gelatinous substance. If they have the low sodium version, you’ll have more flexibility in seasoning.  If cost is a factor, most grocers carry a cheap store-brand.  Make sure you have Instant rice, not quick cook.  You can save money by cooking normal rice and using it instead, but that’s extra step and another dirty pot. My baking dish is about 13” x 9” x 2”.

Directions:

Chop chicken breasts into cubes (about the size of a standard d6 if you’re a gamer). Heat olive oil in your medium pot on medium heat.  Add your diced chicken and cook until almost complete done.  You can season at this point too, but don’t over-do the salt and pepper as they can be done by each diner when served.

Add the can of condensed cream of chicken soup to the medium pot containing your seasoned chicken along with one can of water (use the condensed cream of chicken soup can).  Wash out your metal can and put it in the recycling bin.  Bring the pot to a low/medium boil.  Stir regularly.

Add the can of mixed vegetables.  If it’s packed with a lot of water, you can drain off some, or cut back the can of water from the previous step in the future.  No worries, the rice will absorb much of this and you can always leave the mixture on the stove to cook it down if too thin.

Speaking of consistency, the mixture should look a bit soupy at this stage. That’s fine.  Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and get your baking pan ready.

Pour the contents of the pot into the baking pan.  Mix in your instant rice, making sure everything is as homogenous as possible.  Put the baking pan into the oven using mitts or gloves (it’ll be hot).  Cook for 20+ minutes (if it’s bubbling slightly and smells good, you’re ready for the next step).

Leave the oven on and pull out the pan.  Stir the contents thoroughly in case they’ve settled.  They should be much thicker now as the rice cooks & expands.

Option: At this point, you can stop, cover the entire affair with foil and freeze it, if you want to store it for later.  Do NOT add the biscuits if you are taking this route.  Later, defrost and bake until bubbling  slightly THEN proceed to the next step below. Otherwise…

Open up your biscuit tube and put a layer of biscuits over the top of the contents of the pan.  The edges of the biscuits should just touch and cover as much of the surface as possible.  You may have extra biscuits. I’m a perfectionist so I often cut a couple of the biscuits to fill in any large open spots.

Put the baking pan back in the oven and bake until the biscuits are browned.  About 10-15 minutes but keep an eye on it anyway.

Serving

Serves about four people as a main dish. Salad or veggie dish is nice on the side, but avoid anything too starchy (like more bread, potatoes, etc) as this will be pretty heavy and filling.