Chicken and Rice–YUM!

February 25, 2011 by Susan Shay 14 Comments

 I love church cookbooks. You know the ones I mean. They have all the best recipes the women in a church prepare.

In C-Town our church has rotating committees for funeral dinners, and happily, the one I’m on is headed by one of the best cooks around. (I don’t mind a bit!)

When I was in Pryor Creek, one woman did most of the cooking for funeral dinners by herself. Joy (the perfect name for her) was what I call a master chef. 

To be truthful, at that time I was a working mom with three very active boys. I learned to cook from my mom, who had six kids and cooked a lot of fast and easy recipes. Spaghetti sauce from a mix, taco sauce from an envelope and pizza dough from Bisquick. 

I probably deemed anyone who made her own Alfredo sauce instead of pouring it out of a jar a master chef, but Joy truly was fantastic.

She was very organized, and did everything–at least the things I knew about–just the way they should be done. Especially in the kitchen. (If I can find my shoes in the morning when I’m getting ready for work, I’ve scored a victory!)

So the other day when Joy commented on Facebook that she was making my recipe for Chicken and Rice, and that it’s THE BEST, I nearly cried with happiness! I couldn’t have been happier if Paula Deen had bragged on my recipe.

But it’s really not my recipe. It’s Eunice Posten’s and I got it from this cookbook.

If you can’t read it, it’s from the Lakeview Christian Church in The ‘Ford. Published in 1981. I’d show you the actual page, but I used it so many times, it was torn out years ago. That didn’t keep me from submitting it to the Southside Cookbook in Pryor Creek. (If I ever had a copy, I can’t find it now. Somebody tell me how to get one or loan me yours so I can copy it.)

(Please!)

This recipe is easy and  Y-U-M-M-Y!!! Here you go–

1 stick of butter or margarine
2 C Instant Rice
1 C Chicken broth
2 Cans Mushroom Soup
Chicken breasts
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter in a baking dish (in the oven.) When the butter is melted, add rice, mushroom soup, chicken broth, salt and pepper and mix well. Smooth rice mixture and top with chicken breasts. (I lightly salt and pepper the chicken breasts, too.)

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until breasts are done.

Rather than topping with chicken breasts, sometimes I  take small pieces of breast meat (such as for fajitas but cut into bite size pieces) and stir them into the rice mixture and cook as above.

Everyone in my family loves this dish. It’s a golden tan color when you take it from the oven, and right around the edges is the best crunchy goodness! Yuuuuuum . . . . 

Like my grandad used to say, it’ll make your tongues lap your brains out! Try it and let me know what you think!