Chicken Florentine Rice Casserole Recipe written by the Spencer Brothers on 8/26/2021. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.
Chicken Florentine Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 4 cubes chicken bouillon
- 2 cups instant brown rice
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 chicken breast halves skinless
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 (10 ounce) Packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 2 cups cottage cheese salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a medium saucepan, boil 2 cups water and chicken bouillon. Stir in rice. Remove from heat, and set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with remaining water.
- Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place chicken in a skillet with thyme, sage, basil, parsley, and marjoram. Cook until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Drain and cube.
- Stir onion into the skillet, and cook for 5 minutes, or until browned and tender.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix rice, cornstarch mixture, chicken, onion, spinach, and cottage cheese. Transfer the mixture to a medium baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Top with Parmesan cheese, and dot with butter.
- Bake, covered, 45 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Remove cover, and continue baking for 15 minutes, until the surface is lightly browned.
- Serve and enjoy!
Easy Replacements for the Chicken Florentine Rice Casserole recipe
- Broth for Chicken Bouillon: If you have a favorite broth that you or your family prefers, this can be an easy swap. Also, this can be replaced by vegetable broth if you want a more earthy, vegetable flavor.
- Fresh Spinach for Frozen Spinach: Fresh spinach has a significantly different taste profile than frozen spinach. If you are wanting to use fresh spinach, simply add a bit of time for cutting the spinach and add when it is applied in the recipe.
- Regular Brown Rice for Instant Brown Rice: If for whatever reason you want to use regular rice, simply add that amount of time it will take to cook that rice and apply it to the recipe in the same way as the instant rice.
- Italian Seasoning for Various Seasonings: If you are diving into your pantry and find that you don’t have the listed spices, you can easily replace most of those seasonings with Italian seasoning (which is usually made up of oregano, basil, thyme, sage, marjoram, and rosemary).
- As a bonus, freshly shaved parmesan would elevate this dish to another level of deliciousness
Mise En Place for Chicken Florentine Rice Casserole Recipe
Mise En Place is a French phrase for ‘Everything in it’s place’. This will give you some quick tips on easy things you can prep before starting the cooking process of your meal.
–Pre-chop all your veggies: In this recipe, you can prep your onion and spinach beforehand and have them ready to add to your recipe quickly when the time comes.
–Defrost/Prep Your Chicken: If you have frozen your meat, make sure you spend the time ahead of time defrosting it and letting it come to room temperature (usually about 15 minutes out of the fridge) and lightly salt both sides of the chicken. This is key to quick and efficient cooking and getting a crispy chicken crust.
–Get Out All of your Pantry Items: There is a lot of seasonings in this recipe, so spend time in your pantry to make sure you have everything ready to go. If the spices are supposed to be added all at once, you can pre-measure and put them all in the same bowl. Other pantry items that can be prepared for this recipe include: brown rice, corn starch, chicken bouillon, measured water, olive oil. And even though they may need to be left in the fridge, you can also prep your butter and cheese.
Thank you for reading our Chicken Florentine Rice Casserole Recipe. Check out the other recipes and posts below:
–Vegetarian Penne Pasta Recipe
–Why is Home Cooking Better than Eating Out
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