One-Pan Chicken & Wild Rice Stuffing

Who says stuffing is only for the holidays? Why can’t we have stuffing for an every-day kind of meal, like on a snowy January day when the wind is howling and it’s just too dang cold to do anything outside.

So I’m here to tell you: you don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving for turkey and stuffing. You don’t have to cook a huge turkey or goose, either. You can do a simple bake with stuffing underneath, pieces of chicken on top, and it all comes out simply marvelous, perfectly cooked. The chicken is wonderfully juicy, the stuffing full of good flavors and textures.

I’m having a lazy snow day alone in my house. I’m not really alone, but my (young adult) kids and cats are all asleep so I might as well be. The snow in the driveway needs shoveling AGAIN (even though we just did it last night) and I feel like I should go out and clean it up, but hey, the snowplows still haven’t arrived and the wind is still blowing and what’s the point of shoveling when the wind is just going to blow it right back where it doesn’t belong? And anyway, it’s nice and warm inside and this kind of day is just screaming for some comfort food.

So instead of shoveling, I’m puttering about the house and drinking hot tea and eating chicken and wild rice stuffing. Later I think I’ll read my book for a while, under a nice warm blanket.

I got to practice my “inside” food photography skills today, because this is what my outdoor photography space looks like right now:

It’s pretty, but also not so pretty. Not only do I have to shovel the driveway, I need to shovel my way to my little food photography platform that’s completely buried! A little “tunnel”, so to speak. And how is that going to be better than indoor shots? Usually it is, but well, I might not be going out there for a while.

But I digress … back to the recipe: this stuffing is the real-deal, my friends, not some boxed up mix. This is your opportunity to use up any failed loaves of bread you might have laying around (or some stale bread you’re tired of eating). Mix that old bread up with some mushrooms, onion, celery, wild rice, garlic, spinach and seasonings and watch your old bread turn into something sublime.

For this recipe I highly recommend real Minnesota wild rice (not one of those boxed “wild rice mixes” or a cultivated variety)–get the real WILD rice. It costs a little more, but it’s totally worth it. The wild rice adds a nice nutty flavor and a slightly chewy texture to the stuffing.

The funny thing about wild rice is it’s not really rice at all. It IS an aquatic grass, much like rice, and it cooks like rice, but it is much healthier and has a more robust flavor. It’s also lower in carbs and higher in protein than regular old rice, and eating wild rice can also reduce your LDL cholesterol levels. Woohoo!

I put lots of veggies in this stuffing, too, so you don’t HAVE to have another vegetable, but feel free to add some green beans or steamed broccoli or perhaps some roasted butternut squash. I actually ate my green beans BEFORE the meal, so I could simply chow on stuffing and chicken during the meal. Seriously, what else do you need?

Oh except for wine, yes wine. A nice glass of Pinot Grigio – or your favorite white – is the perfect way to polish off this delightful one-pan meal.

Print Nutrition varies depending on the chicken pieces used and whether you eat the skin and fat.