You know how you see those recipes all over Pinterest and the Internet and store magazines? The ones that have the easy chicken dish – the one with rice mixed with a bunch of cream-of-whoknowswhat soups and onion soup mix? Then you put the chicken on top and it’s all done in one hour? It’s like some kind of Amazing Super Duper Kitchen Meal!
Well, I won’t lie. I always skipped over those recipes in the magazines and church cookbooks. Because really, I don’t buy those things any more. I move right on to the recipes calling for bacon or chocolate…or bacon AND chocolate. But today, today my friends, we are going to CONQUER THE CHICKEN DISH!!!! Step aside cream-of-whoknowswhat. Stacy is in town.
This cookbook is from the church where my Uncle Bob goes – Chilhowie Baptist Church. It’s full of lovely gems and I’ve made a ton of recipes out of here. Thank you, Chilhowie Christian Church ladies. You’re amazing…probably because you’re from my home town and you like butter. Ba, da, da! (Pretend you heard the funny drum cue.)
This recipe was called “No Peek Chicken.” I’d love to have a picture for you, but I won’t lie. I forgot to take it and I’m too lazy to get up now and do it. I just found Andy playing in my earrings and Annie decorated all her furniture with stickers. Soooooooooooooooooo, I’m sitting down right now and don’t plan to get up until someone screams. Suffice it to say it called for chicken, rice, cream of soups, and onion soup mix. That about sums it up.
I used brown rice instead of white. We do eat a lot of white rice – basmati…because it’s my favorite and it makes me happy. I would be content eating nothing but a big plate of buttered white basmati rice. Wait, now I’m distracted. What were we talking about?
Oh yeah, brown rice. It’s a love that I’ve had to cultivate. Because at first I HATED BROWN RICE. I felt like I was trying to eat a plate of dirty grass. So, if you hate brown rice, don’t give up on it…keep eating your grass occasionally and it might start to rub off on you. Then you’ll have grass stain.
I don’t buy onion soup mix either…so I just used some spices and these lovely dehydrated onions. Man, if you don’t keep these in your pantry you don’t know what you’re missing. I use them all the time. They give such a lovely flavor – and if you forget to chop your onions because there is a 16 month old hanging on to your leg and you can’t make it to the fridge, just dump some of these in and call it done.
So, now we have two options. We can make up a batch of cream-of soup with my Cream of Soup Mix OR we can just make a fresh batch of cream of chicken soup…I decided on the latter. It’s super quick to whip up, so either one will work. One batch of fresh makes the equivalent of two cans, which was perfect for this recipe. If you make the mix, remember you need about 2 ½ cups worth of thick soup.
When you mix it all together and lay the chicken on top, it will kinda sink down. Don’t freak out…it can swim. Those breasts are heavy. Okay, I must stop now because I could make TOO MANY jokes about what I just said. Moving on.
Look how lovely and delicious that looks! Man, this is an Amazing Super Duper Kitchen Meal! And I didn’t even need the mixes. 🙂 Since the homemade soup whips up so quickly, this meal is a quick fix, even with all the homemade items. The brown rice didn’t overpower the other flavors – it was a nice mix. But white rice would work great too.
I got two thumbs up from everyone for this meal – including The Picky One. So, that should tell you something. It’s an Amazing Super Duper Kitchen Miracle Meal. Amen.
No Junk No Peek Chicken
- 1 cup rice (brown or white)
- 1 batch Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup
- ¾ cup water
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons minced dried onions
- Combine rice, soup, water, and seasonings (except dried onions).
- Pour into greased casserole dish (I used an 11×7 size).
- Place chicken breasts on top of rice. They will sink some.
- Sprinkle breasts with additional salt if desired.
- Sprinkle onions over all.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until rice and chicken are done.
- Let stand 5 minutes before serving – to thicken.
Yield: 4 servings
Stacy, I am so happy to find this recipe. My family loves this but I hate using the canned soup (I’m a kidney patient.) I have a Ninja cooker so I’m going to try making the soup in that and then throw everything else in. I’m sure it will be delicious. Thanks very much.
Cat
I hope it works great, Cat!
It’s true, Stacy. Choking down whole grains can be quite a process if it’s not what you’re accustomed to. As you say though, working it in slowly is key. I’ll confess: I LOVE WHITE BREAD… but I only eat it once in a blue moon as a treat. That way, I don’t become accustomed to the sugar and “ease” of white starch products. Now though, I eat brown rice like it’s going out of style – it’s just so hearty!
Your no junk chicken looks great!
Thank you so much for linking up with us at Fresh Foods Wednesday! I hope you’ll join us again this week with more fresh foods posts! xo, kristy
My Mama loves white bread too. 🙂
Hi Stacy,
This is pure comfort food, we would just love it. I just love the recipe in the church cookbooks, sometimes they are the best!
Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope you have a great weekend!
Miz Helen
Yes, they are! And you know they are tested well. 🙂
I do something similar to this. It was my fav. when I was little, and is in my son’s top 5 fav meals, just behind homemade pizza. I soak 2 cups of rice in broth for as long as all day. Then cover with foil and turn the oven on while I get the chicken ready- about 20 to 30 min depending how many times I get interrupted. I brown the chicken with or with breading ( somedays are like that). Set the browned chicken on top of the rice and recover with foil. continue baking until chicken is done ( about another 30- 40 min.) This is a very forgiving dish. So if I get busy, It is okay for a little while longer.
And forgiving dishes are my favorite!
How long would you cook this for boneless thighs or drumsticks? Any idea? I don’t even know if it would work, like if the rice would still be hard by the time the chicken was done.
Hmmmm. Not sure. My pieces were small – you could try it. I would check it after 45 minutes.
Made a batch of your Cream of Mushroom with lots of extra mushrooms…Delicious and so easy. The recipe didn’t say to cover the dish while baking. I could hit myself up side the head because when my brown rice turned out more like pebbles than grass after 80 minutes in the oven) I realized that you can’t “No Peek” if there’s no cover to peek under”. One large DUH! Next time I’ll do better. I’m a first time subscriber and simply love your sense of humor.
🙂 I didn’t cover mine. For me, the no peek was “don’t open the oven.” Ha! But, why did you cook it 80 minutes?
Another “DUH”…thought the longer it cooked the softer the rice. I did take the chicken out after the first 50 minutes. Tried your suggested method for cooking rice yesterday. Took about 40 minutes for brown rice and came out perfectly. You’re right…Why didn’t I think of that?
And now I make rice in my pressure cooker. Best. Rice. EVER!
So, if one were to use a can of cream of soup…how many would that person need for this recipe? I’m trying to clear out the cans of cream of soup before embarking on the journey of making my own. 🙂
Two. 🙂 Good luck on your journey!
yum Stacy, that looks DEEEE licious!
I have to tell you that I am EXPERIMENTING in my crock pot and it is all thanks to you!!! So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Last night we feasted on this tastey treat, please feel free to try and blog about! I basically just open my fridge these days, say, I have this, that and the other, mix it all up and toss in the crock, low 6 hours, maybe 8. Never measure a thing, so the below is an estimate. Should have taken a picture, cause this was PREEMO!
One onion halved and sliced thin
4 chicken breasts cut into long thick strips
4oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, warmed to soften or one COULD just plan ahead and leave on the counter, yah right!
1/2 c fat free Greek Yogurt
15 oz can artichokes in water, chopped up
3 T dijon mustard
1/2 c beef stock, used the leftovers from the roast I made in the crock the day before, but that is a whole nother crock pot recipe that I could tantalize you with
S&P
Fresh parsley
Gluccomanan
I sprayed my crock with a little oil, I hate sticking!!!!
Layered in the onions
Piled on the chicken
then I mixed the cream cheese, yogurt, mustard, artichokes and a small splash of white wine, sprinkled it with S&P and poured it over the chicken and gave the whole thing a little smoothing out to cover the chicken.
Low 6 hrs
after 5.5 hours I tossed in about 2t of the glucci to thicken things up and added the chopped parsley and gave it a big ol stir.
I served it over steamed broccoli florets.
It was creamy and dreamy and quit delicious!
You can put cream cheese in anything and make it taste yummy – it’s my secret ingredient. LOL
Oh my goodness this sounds delicious!!!!!
I love the ingredients==Dijon, yogurt, artichokes, cream cheese, chicken. It doesn’t get any better than this. Thank you SO much for sharing this great recipe at Foodie Friday.
I love the casserole dish! What brand is that? Thanks! The recipe looks good too. 🙂
That was a gift from Barry’s grandparents…and I’m with you – it’s one of my favorites!
Just made this while I had a few free minutes (13 month twins eating lunch in their high chairs). Can’t wait to bake it tonight for dinner! I added some minced dried garlic to the top as well since I have a slight obsession with it. Thanks for another awesome recipe.
Blessings to you and your awesome family!
Erin
I have a slight obsession with bacon.
This looks so yummy! I already printed it (even though I haven’t made it yet!)
But you don’t buy chicken! 🙂
This was one of my hubby’s grandmas recipes she gave to him and the only difference is she adds a slice of swiss on top of each chicken breast! It was the first thing he made for me when we were dating. And yes she used those lovely cans but we use homemade soup too!!!
Cheese! Of course! Great idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who’s pickiest – Barry or the kids? 😉 sounds yummy, will need to make it once my son can do dairy
It’s Andy. 🙂
Toddlers – they’ll get you every time.
No mom – I do not want to eat your delicious meal. I would rather feast on this dog food over here in the floor.
Stacy, could you do this in the crock pot??? Just wondering.
Probably…but I’m just not totally fond of rice in the crock. I do it sometimes, but I prefer not to.
I converted all of my cream-of-whatnot recipes to your homemade cream of soup. My favorite is a variation of this, put the chicken in the soup sans rice, cover it with Swiss cheese and sprinkle stuffing on top before baking. I usually cook the breasts in my crock and then shred them, saving baking time and making the natives happy because they don’t have to wait for Mom to cut it up for them.
I love all you cheesy people – I can’t believe I didn’t add cheese. DOH!
Stacy, I make the same thing(and have been for YEARS), only instead of baking it, I just throw everything into my crock pot. It’s much easier and you don’t have to babysit it in the oven.
I’m just not a huge fan of rice in the crock – I think it tastes gummy – and yes, this is coming from the Crock Pot Beans and Rice girl. 😉
Hey, Stacy! Stacey here! This sounds wonderful, and I went to look at your Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup recipe (because I had never checked that one out). I was wondering if I could substitute a GF baking mix for the flour. I have some Bob’s Red Mill GF Baking Mix, or I have almond meal, flax meal, and even some coconut flour. I’m really trying to keep wheat flour out of my diet as much as possible – my tummy just doesn’t like it! Thanks – love all your posts and your awesome sense of humor! You make me smile!
Well, I’m sure you could! 🙂
I am so hungry right now and reading this was probably a mistake as I can’t possibly try it til tomorrow. I think my lot would love this. Maybe even with the grass.
Embrace grass. It’s full of fiber.