I’m from Minnesota, so I say hot dish, you might call it a casserole, depending on where you’re from. A hot creamy dish by any other name tastes just as delicious. This recipe is easy to prep ahead of time. You can have it in the fridge. Just pop it in the oven after work. We actually had some decent weather the other day, so I asked Ryan to grill up some chicken breasts. We have 3 big kid-food eaters in my house. My youngest is only 4 months old, so they are not yet gumming adult-food. Naturally, I had Ryan grill up 10 chicken breasts (gulp). Over the week, we utilized them well. We used them for a grilled chicken dinner, for salads at lunch, and for this dish. Having grilled, chopped chicken in the fridge helped make this dish a cinch to pull together. The rice cooker made cooking the wild rice a set-it and forget-it breeze. PSA: I love having a rice cooker, we use it a couple of times a week. Perfect rice every time, without having to babysit the pot.
I made 2 cups of wild rice on Sunday. I prepared the grilled chicken as well. I kept both in the fridge until I was ready to prep this dish Tuesday evening. In a large bowl, I mixed all of my ingredients (listed below). I spread the mixture into a prepped baking dish. Then I topped it with tinfoil and put it in the fridge for the next night. It took me about 6 minutes.
The key ingredient in this dish (yes, this is good for you, too, my gluten free friends) is Progresso’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. Hooray! This isn’t your condensed cream of chicken soup of yesteryear, so if you’re using it in other dishes, take into consideration that you wont need as much liquid. I can’t tell you how excited I was to find GF cream of anything soup. This soup makes it possible to put together a comforting dinner perfect for a mid-winter night.
This recipe is pretty flexible, feel free add or cut-out various vegetables, or even top it with cheese.
Chicken Wild Rice Hot Dish
2 cups wild rice cooked
3 chicken breasts cooked & diced
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (*be sure it’s gluten free)
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 – 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tsp salt OR season salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
combine all ingredients and spread into a sprayed 13 x 9 or larger baking dish. (This makes a pretty big recipe.) Bake, covered with tinfoil, at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until hot and bubbly. This recipe refrigerates well for a couple of days before baking, you can also freeze it for later.
