Need casserole help!

[peaceful_mama]

OK so I've got some leftover chicken, some frozen broccoli, and some cheese. I've also got brown rice. I was going to attempt to make this casserole I've had before at the daycare I used to work at out of it...but I don't really know how LOL.

I'm having a debate on whether I should use already-cooked rice or I know there's a way to make it using uncooked rice and let it bake but you have to of course have a liquid that the rice can soak up. The thing I don't know is if I use already cooked rice, will it dry out baking? (the one time I did try to do a chicken casserole with uncooked rice and liquid it didn't work real well cause I tried turning down my oven and leaving it longer for after a meeting I had to go to....not adviseable. LOL)

help?

[aisraeltax]

i need help too!!!!

[EFmom]

Brown rice takes so long to cook that I think you'd be better off pre-cooking it, at least partially.

[VikingKvinna]

Originally Posted by EFmom

Brown rice takes so long to cook that I think you'd be better off pre-cooking it, at least partially.

I agree. I have made casseroles using uncooked rice, but I would want to follow a recipe and make sure I had the proper amount of liquid. Otherwise you could have a mess on your hands -- the rice could turn out undercooked and crunchy, or overcooked and mushy.

If I were you, I'd use pasta for your casserole! You could either make a white sauce and add the cheese (so you'd basically have mac-n-cheese with chicken and broccoli) or use a cream-of soup or a homemade variation thereof. Cook the pasta, but undercook it slightly, so it's just barely al dente, then add your other ingredients and bake until it's warmed through.

HTH!
~Nick

[corwinegall]

allrecipes.com has an ingredient search where you can stick the ingredients in that you want and it'll list recipes. I do that to get ideas for cooking times, proportions, etc when I'm making up a recipe or trying to put something together that I'd had before but didn't have a recipe.