(Cheese) Salsa Chicken Rice Casserole

TGIF, Constant Readers!  Thank Gouda it’s Friday!!!

Fridays are the best day of the week for 2 reasons.  1)  It’s the last day of the work week, and 2)  It’s Recipe Friday here at Cheese Cheese Everywhere

This week’s recipe is something that combines cheese along with several other foods that most everyone loves.  It’s got protein, carbs, spices and cheese.  How can you go wrong?  

And it smells D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S while cooking.

So, without further ado, I present to you the following recipe from allrecipes.com, which doesn’t actually have the word Cheese in the title, so I’ve renamed it…

(Cheese) Salsa Chicken Rice Casserole

The ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups uncooked white rice
• 2 2/3 cups water
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups mild salsa

The directions

1. Place rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place chicken breast halves into a large saucepan, and fill the pan with water. Bring to a boil, and cook for 20 minutes, or until done. Remove chicken from water. When cool enough to handle, cut meat into bite-size pieces.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
4. In a medium bowl, combine Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses. In a separate bowl, mix together cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, onion, and salsa. Layer 1/2 of the rice, 1/2 of the chicken, 1/2 of the soup and salsa mixture, and 1/2 of the cheese mixture in prepared dish. Repeat layers, ending with cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until bubbly.

As usual, a few notes after making this.

I couldn’t find any block Monterey Jack cheese so I bought the already shredded mix of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Queso Quesadilla.  It’s expensive but does save on time spent grating the cheese.

I used the mild salsa but if you like it hotter, you could use the medium or hot salsa and even throw in some diced chilies.

This works really well as a meal that you can make and eat for a couple of meals.  Usually, when I’m making a dish I make too much of it and get sick of it before I finish it all.  This doesn’t make too much so you won’t have that problem.

That being said, I only made one of each layer so it’s not as nice presentation-wise as it would be with two layers each.  Still, an excellent dish and well worth the time it takes to make it.

Hope you all have a great weekend,

Stay cheesy!

Captain Cheese