Cheesy Crockpot Chicken & Rice

Mmm I'm so excited to share this recipe with y'all!!

It should be a household staple for everyone!

It's easy, hearty, and satisfying!

We cook with a lot of chicken in our house, and I love being able to whip up a complete meal in a crockpot. A crockpot meal just about always gives you leftovers and allows you to dump and go and come home to a hot dinner. And as a bonus, you can throw the lid on it and put it in the fridge after dinner is over so there is no clean up! You can deal with the dishes another night; a crockpot dinner should mean a night off from cooking and dishes!

Here we go!

You'll Need:

3 chicken breasts, frozen is fine

2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup

2 cups of water*

2 chicken bullion cubes*

(the water and bullion cubes could be replaced by 2 cups of chicken broth)

2 cups of dry quick-cooking brown rice

2 cups of chopped cooked broccoli (more if you love it, less if you don't)

Here's my schpeal on the broccoli. There's a few ways to go here. You can either use fresh broccoli, chop it and steam it yourself (which I prefer), or if you want it to truly be a dump-and-go meal (which I also really prefer) then you can just zap some frozen broccoli in the microwave. Aim to buy broccoli florets and not broccoli cuts, as the latter will give you mostly stem pieces.

And a few more ingredients...

1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese

salt and pepper to taste

  (or if you are like me the lid comes flying open and you dump a ton of pepper in by accident!)

What You'll Do:

(Cook for 8 hours on low)

1. Dump the chicken, cream of mushroom soup, and water+bullion cubes into the crockpot.

2. 30-45 minutes before serving, add in the dry rice. Stir briefly to immerse rice.

3. DO NOT open the lid until 30-45 minutes have passed. You need the heat and steam to build back up to cook the rice. It's tempting, I know. The husband does it frequently if he's home for this part!

4. Right before serving, add in the cooked broccoli and cheese. Stir until everything is mixed in.

5. Season to taste with salt and pepper. It may not need much salt so always taste first! I know salt is a very preferential thing!

Ohhh this is so yummy! We are on day 3 of eating it and it is so good leftover too! I think the secret is the cream of mushroom soup. I used to make this with cream of chicken instead and it wasn't as good. Don't be afraid of the mushroom! It adds great depth of flavor and you don't even know you're eating mushrooms!