Ok this turned out AH-Mazing. The biggest compliment I get on my dinners is when I hear “Can you make this again????:” And I heard that tonight so YEP going on the make again list!
The best part? This was SOO easy. It was almost just dumping a few things together. Most Chicken Casseroles call for canned soups but I wanted to make one without any canned ingredients. I was just in the mood for a non-canned meal- so this is a few extra steps- but it has so little hands on time that I think the extra steps are SO worth it! If you’d rather skip making your own cheese sauce just use a can of chicken soup and a can of mushroom soup 1 cup of milk and all the rest of the ingredients.
Tip: If possible- cook the chicken in an InstantPot or Slow Cooker the night before. Makes it SO much faster to pull this together.
Tip: You can crush or not-crush the Ritz as much or as little as you like. We like them chunkier but you could finely crush them if you’d rather.
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- 3 cups milk
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed or shredded (about 4 cups)
- 2 heads broccoli, chipped into 1 inch pieces
- 3 cups cooked rice
- 1 sleeve Ritz Crackers, crushed
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place butter in a large pan and melt butter.
- Place cooked rice, chicken and broccoli to a large bowl.
- Add flour and whisk briskly. Add milk slowly while whisking.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and allow milk sauce to thicken.
- Add most of the cheese, reserving some for topping the casserole.
- When thickened, add cheese and whisk until fully melted and combined.
- Remove from heat and allow to sit 1-2 minutes.
- Pour cheese sauce over broccoli, chicken and rice.
- Mix until sauce evenly coats other ingredients.
- Place mixture into an oven safe pan and top with crushed crackers and reserved cheese.
- Bake 25-35 minutes.
I made this serving into a single dish because I had extra from the large pan I made for the freezer – plus it looks so much prettier than my tin pan I was putting up. (p.s. Dollar Tree tin pans are AWESOME for making freezer casseroles!)
To freeze- wrap well in foil and then over wrap in plastic wrap. To cook- allow to thaw in the fridge and bake at 350 for 30 -35 minutes.
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