warming the kitchen with chicken and wild rice casserole

So, I've been frozen for the past month and just now crawled out of my cryogenic phase to warm my kitchen for some much needed warmth...

My aunt had an awesome casserole she always made which included beef.  I'm not much of a beef casserole type person.. so I used my ground chicken instead....

Pour 4 cups of water over 1/2 cup of  uncooked wild rice and 1/2 cup of uncooked brown rice ( or 1 cup wild rice).   Let stand 15 minutes.

Drain

In a 9 x 13 baking dish with the drained rice...

add 1 package of french onion soup mix
2 cans of mushrooms
2 cups of  chicken stock
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 or 1/2 cups ...peas, corn, diced carrots, cabbage, broccoli (opt.)

Saute until translucent :
3/4 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. red onion
1 T minced garlic

Add to the above mixture in the baking dish.

Brown 1 lb of ground chicken or turkey, season with
season salt
pepper
celery salt

Add to above mixture.

In the same pan as you cooked the meat add 3 T butter and 3 T. of flour, white or wheat and blend in to make a rue over med low heat.

Add 1 cup of chicken or beef stock slowly, whisking all the while.

Add in 1 cup of milk and turn up heat to med high.  When mixture come to a simmer, let cook for 2 minutes then add to the mixture in the baking dish.  Mix all ingredients well.

Put in 300 degree oven for 2 hours if you need the heat or 350 for 1 hour if you're hungry.  Add more chicken stock if it becomes dry.
 

It's great warmed over several times... actually, it gets better.  You can also use leftover rotisserie chicken instead of ground chicken.  I had some leftover smoked chicken from a neighborhood Texas BBQ restaurant.. AMAZING!!

It's great also to freeze in smaller containers to take to work, which is where the remaining casserole went this morning ....  so no pictures to post... Sorry!