M had a lot of ingredients leftover from a previous dinner, so I had to find a dish that uses a fair amount of cheese. So, I thought about making Chicken Broccoli Casserole. I didn’t want to use a roux-based sauce because of all the cream and butter, so thickening chicken broth with flour seemed like the way to go.
It’s a tad healthier and you won’t be beating yourself up the next day for indulging on a lot of fat and dairy.
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- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 crowns of broccoli
- 3 cups of white rice
- 1 rotisserie chicken
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
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- Prepare your rice in the rice cooker while you prep the other ingredients. Rice takes the longest to prepare, so make sure you do that first.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- Wash the broccoli crowns and cut them into smaller bite-size pieces
- Take the breast of the rotisserie chicken and shred it all up. You can then save the leftover meat for the next day. If you didn’t want to buy a whole rotisserie chicken, you can alternatively cook some chicken breast. I just find the rotisserie chicken easier and full of flavour.
- Grate and prepare all the cheese you need
- Then set it aside for use later on.
- Saute onions until golden brown
- In a medium sauce pan, whisk the flour and chicken stock over medium heat
- After a few minutes, you will see you sauce thickening up. You know it’s thick enough when it starts sticking onto your whisk.
- Dump in the chopped broccoli into the sauce until all the broccoli is evenly coated.
- In your casserole pan, put your cooked rice, shredded chicken breast, and sautéed onions.
- Pour the broccoli and sauce mixture into the pan and mix all ingredients thoroughly.
- Once you have it mixed well, top it off with parmesan cheese. Then put it into the oven for 30 minutes.
There you go, chicken and broccoli casserole! All made in under an hour.
