Copy Catting

I don't like many frozen foods, but there were a few from Stouffer's that I liked in the old days, like Grandma's Chicken and Vegetable Rice Bake. It actually did remind me of a rice casserole my grandmother used to make. It now costs almost $15.00 for a large size, and I'm not paying that, especially as the quality of the ingredients Stouffer's uses has gone so far downhill. So I decided to see if I could find a copy-cat recipe and make my own version (there is a copy-cat recipe online for basically anything, I've discovered.)

This recipe came pretty close. It maybe cost four dollars for me to make. I did tweak it by using cream of chicken instead of cream of mushroom, as that's what I preferred, and canned peas and carrots instead of frozen. I also used only about half the chicken in the recipe, as we're trying to cut down on the amount of meat in our meals. It was tasty, although not an exact copy (a bit dry, and it had a slightly different flavor.) I also think there is too much panko in the recipe; about half would work better. Still, the texture was spot-on and it looked almost identical to the frozen entree. Anyway, I'm going to make it again in the future and do a few more tweaks to see if I can get it closer.