Minnesota Chicken & Rice Casserole

When it's finally cold enough for comfort food in the great state of Arizona, I go on a soup, stew, and casserole diet. I first had this casserole at a friend's house about 15 years ago, and I still look forward to its stick-to-your-ribs deliciousness each year when the chilly autumn nights finally arrive. Even better, it's about as simple as it gets to assemble.

Here's what you need:

1 can of chicken (shoot for the 12-15oz size)
1 can cream of chicken soup (the standard issue soup can size)
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cups milk
1 cup rice

A word about the cream soups -- this is the original combo, but in a pinch, cream of mushroom, cream of onion, or a second can of cream of chicken will do just fine. I wouldn't recommend two cream of celery soups, but otherwise, you really can't mess this part up.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Put the rice on the bottom of a 2qt casserole dish. Don't bother greasing it -- it doesn't help with the after dinner scrubbing. Ideally, someone else will do the dishes for you since you made dinner!

In a separate bowl, mix both cans of soup and the milk. Pour half of this on the rice. No need to get technical here. Just eyeball it.

Add the chicken and it's broth to the casserole, then pour the remainder of the soupy milk mixture over the top. If you really want to get fancy, you can sprinkle a small amount of Lipton's onion soup mix (the kind that comes in a little pouch) on top.

Cover and bake for 1 hour, 45 minutes. After one hour, check in on things, and give it a stir. In the meantime, watch a movie, read a book, or do anything else but slave over a hot meal. Remove the lid for the last 15 minutes, then serve with fresh crusty bread and homemade applesauce.