Super Yummy in Your Tummy Cheesy Spinach Rice Dish

From: Chef #1265207

On May 11, 2009

My family loved this and I'd like to give it 5 stars, but my computer won't let me! Aargh! I did have one important questiont, though: should the rice be cooked already? I put it in the casserole uncooked and the whole thing took almost an hour to cook. The rice was still hard and crunchy after 20 minutes. Did I do something wrong? Thank you!

From: Frolic838

On Dec 19, 2007

The recipe as made would have been a little bland for my tastes, but I made several adjustments. Overall, the recipe was very easy. Again, as discussed below I made some adjustments to suit my taste & style. I was looking for a one-dish dinner & discovered that by tripling the recipe, but only doubling the meat I came out with the right proportions of veggies, whole grains, and protein. You even get dairy to boot! I substituted olive oil for the butter when browning the meat. I then removed the meat from the pan to rest and sauted the onion and carrots that I had coarsely chopped in some additional oil before adding the garlic and waiting until it became aromatic. Returning the chicken to the pan, I braised for about 10 minutes in about 3oz white wine. I substituted brown rice which I had precooked using chicken broth. I kicked up the flavor a bit with extra cayenne & added some of Emeril's essence. I divided between two pans and popped them in the oven, topping with the reserved half of the cheese as directed. One of the two dishes didn't brown too well, so I stuck it under the broiler for a bit to make the cheese all brown and bubbly. Overall a very yummy dish. Highly recommended!

From: KCShell

On Dec 2, 2007

Brianna, I could eat this 7 days a week! this was great! I am uncertain if I compromised the flavor but I did omit the onions and used only one garlic clove. I would have gladly followed your cooking directions, as I think it is a perfect way to make this but I was so short on time that this is what I had to do. I cut up the chicken in strips, added the soup, milk, rice, carrots and frozen spinach, right out of the freezer. I threw it all in together and simmered it for 20 minutes. When the rice was soft and I added the cheeses. It did firm up within a few minutes. I enjoyed it several days at lunch. The spinach was just fabulous in this! Your toddler is a lucky boy to have such a good mommy! KCShel