Chicken or Turkey With Wild Rice Casserole
This is one of my favorite recipes of all time. I found it years ago in The New York Times Heritage Cookbook – it’s a Minnesota recipe – and have been using it ever since. Many of the ingredients are currently available at the Market – shallots, onions, mushrooms, chicken, and turkey. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, I substitute turkey for chicken, and I always add more Parmesan than called for.
The Recipe
Yield: eight servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots or one-half cup chopped onion
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 ½ cups light cream
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 3 cups diced cooked chicken
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
PREPARATION
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook the rice until tender according to any standard recipe. Set aside.
- Cook the shallots or onion in two tablespoons of the butter, but do not brown. Sprinkle with the flour and stir until blended. Add the broth and cream, stirring rapidly with a wire whisk. When blended and smooth, simmer, stirring, about five minutes. Season with the nutmet, sald, and pepper.
- Saute the mushrooms in the remaining butter and add to sauce. Add the rice, chicken and parsley. Spoon mixture into a two-quart casserole and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake twenty-five to thirty minutes.
This locally inspired recipe is brought to you by Pam Walker. Pam is an avid home cook, writer, and local farm and food activist who is also a board member of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. Thank you, Pam, for helping inspire us to use locally sourced ingredients!