recipe #3- Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

So, tonight it's already 10pm because I don't get off work until 8pm Mondays and Wednesdays, so tonight I'm having spaghetti with Ragu and adding my own sauteed mushrooms and onions to the sauce. Not so fancy. I've been looking for a good recipe to try out my crock pot that mom gave me. It's kind of big, so I donno if it's too big to make stuff in, but at least I could cook a whole chicken in there if I really wanted to I guess. In looking for a crock pot recipe, I realized that with an eight to nine hour cook time I'd have to actually be gone for only eight to nine hours, which really only leaves weekends and fridays for cooking with the crockpot. That's fine.

In the meantime of Friday, I still have Tuesday and Thursday to cook for, getting home around 6pm.

So, I've come up with these two recipes for this week. I had to look them up in conjunction so when I go shopping tomorrow, I can just pick up all needed ingredients.


Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Prep time 15 Min
Cook time 30 Min
Ready In 45 Min

Ingredients

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite size pieces
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups cooked white rice
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can southwestern pepperjack cheese soup
1/2 cup milk
4 oz can diced green chili peppers
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese/ pepperjack cheese
4 slices soft white bread, cubed or crushed crackers or croutons

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. To Cook Chicken: Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste, place in a microwave-safe dish, cover and cook in microwave for 5 to 6 minutes. Turn and cook another 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink inside. (Also can saute with garlic/oil in a skillet.) Let cool.

3. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, combine chicken, rice, soups, half the cheese, chilis, and milk and mix well. Add the rest of the cheese and top with bread crumbs, sprinkle with melted butter over bread crumbs.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly and bread is crunchy.

This recipe, I'd like to note, that I got from allrecipes.com, which I'm finding to be an excellent site because not only does it have the recipe, but it also has several reviews, and people add their own suggestions on how to make the recipe better. Right now this recipe looks excellent, but I already integrated the reader's suggestions into it, before it was just chicken, rice (not that much), only one can of chicken broth and no soup or chili's, and half that amount of cheese, and only cheddar, and no sprinkled butter over the top.