Chicken and "Rice" Casserole
This recipe is adapted from Danielle Walker's Against All Grain "Meals Made Simple" cookbook. It is an elevated and healthier version of a comfort food classic--with all the flavor of your favorite casserole but without all the heavy ingredients!
By: Honey On My Spoon
Ingredients
- SAUCE
- 1 cup raw cashews
- ¾ cup chicken stock (I use the poaching liquid from the chicken)
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- CASSEROLE
- 3 Tbsp ghee, butter, or olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ onion, diced
- 4 oz. mushrooms, finely diced
- 4 cups riced cauliflower*
- 8 oz broccoli florets, chopped
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- 1-2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded**
Instructions
- Soak the cashews in a container filled with boiling water for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a casserole dish.
- Saute the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in the ghee (or other) about 3 minutes until onions start to become translucent. Add in the broccoli, salt, and pepper and let it cook several minutes for the broccoli to start to become tender. Add in the cauliflower and turn off the heat.
- To make the sauce, drain the cashews, and place all the ingredients for the sauce into a blender. Blend on high for 30-45 seconds until smooth.
- Stir in the shredded chicken and the sauce into the broccoli mixture, and pour into the casserole dish.
- Cover the dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.
Notes
*To rice the cauliflower, I use the grater attachment on my food processor to make it go lickity split. I find that one normal large head of cauliflower will yield about 8 cups, which I divide in half and refrigerate the other (works well in place of rice for fried rice too!). You can also use a standard box grater if you do not have a food processor.
**I usually just use one and add extra mushrooms and broccoli (and sometimes I like to add chopped kale too), but you can certainly use two if you want more chicken in there! To poach chicken, I will put the raw chicken in a pot and cover with water. Sometimes I will add some celery or onion to the water as well to help season the chicken, and then let it simmer 25-30 minutes, until cooked through. Alternatively, you could use some leftover roasted chicken, or make it extra easy and use a precooked rotisserie chicken! If you go that route though, I would decrease the amount of salt in the recipe.
**I usually just use one and add extra mushrooms and broccoli (and sometimes I like to add chopped kale too), but you can certainly use two if you want more chicken in there! To poach chicken, I will put the raw chicken in a pot and cover with water. Sometimes I will add some celery or onion to the water as well to help season the chicken, and then let it simmer 25-30 minutes, until cooked through. Alternatively, you could use some leftover roasted chicken, or make it extra easy and use a precooked rotisserie chicken! If you go that route though, I would decrease the amount of salt in the recipe.
Recipe by Honey on my Spoon at https://www.honeyonmyspoon.com/?p=188