Beef and Wild Rice Casserole

By mrshermes2002

This is my own spin on a Trisha Yearwood recipe. Her original recipe called for chicken instead of beef, pimentos instead of green chilis and the addition of toasted almond slivers and parsley. I also increased the flour from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup.

Ingredients

• Two 6-ounce boxes long-grain and wild rice mix, such as Uncle Ben's
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing dish
• 16 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced, or two 4 1/2-ounce cans sliced mushrooms, drained (reserve the liquid)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups beef broth
• 3 cups half-and-half
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 4 oz Hatch green chilis from the can
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Details

Servings 12
Preparation time 30mins
Cooking time 75mins
Adapted from foodnetwork.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cook the long-grain and wild rice mixes according to the package directions. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-by-2-inch casserole dish.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef while mashing into small chunks. Add some salt and pepper. Drain.

In another large skillet, melt the butter. Add the mushrooms and onions and saute until the onions are translucent. Stir in the flour, cooking for 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly stir the broth (and reserved canned mushroom liquid if using) into the onion mixture, then stir in the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture has thickened, 7 to 10 minutes.

Add the beef, rice, green chilis, salt and pepper into the wet mixture. Pour everything into the prepared casserole dish and bake, uncovered, until most of the liquid has been absorbed, 30 to 45 minutes.