This is a great one dish hearty supper. And it is easy to fix. Use any ground sausage you wish, but if you can find bulk country sausage it is wonderful in this dish. Around here the place to buy it is Cliff's Meat Market. But you can find packages of country sausage at the supermarket too.
I haven't had sausage this good in years! There is nothing to compare with fresh farm prepared country sausage.
Ingredients:
- 2pound of bulk country sausage, browned
- 6 cups of cooked rice (2 cups of uncooked rice cooked will yield 6 cups)
- 4-5 stalks of celery, chopped
- 1 large sweet onion chopped
- 1 Green bell pepper, chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 cup (or more) of chicken broth
- Salt
- Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley
Note 1: My daughter, Stephanie, makes this dish and she adds a can of the Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles (mild). This sounds very good to me!
Note 2: I love white basmati rice. You can buy it in bulk at Whole Foods. Try it. The aroma and taste is wonderful.
Instructions:
1. Chop the vegetables and set them aside.
2. Cook the rice. Rinse the rice with water in a strainer several times. Then pour the rice in a saucepan. Add water to be one index finger knuckle above the rice. Boil until the water is level with the rice. Put a lid on the pan and turn the heat to low. Do not take the lid off of the rice until you're instructed to do it:-) Cook the rice on low for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, set the pan off the burner for an additional 15 minutes to allow the rice to steam. Then take the lid off the pan and use a fork to fluff the rice. Pout the cooked rice in a casserole bowl and set the dish aside.
3. Brown the sausage in a frying pan over medium heat. Drain the excess oil. Use a spatula to move the sausage into the casserole with the rice. Stir the sausage and rice together. Set the casserole aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
5. Sauté the celery, onions and bell pepper in butter in a frying pan over a low medium hot burner. Add salt and pepper as desired. When the vegetables are cooked through, use the spatula to transfer the vegetables into the casserole dish with the rice and sausage and stir the ingredients together.
6. Pour a cup of chicken broth over the rice, sausage, and vegetables and stir.
7. Put a lid on the casserole dish and put the casserole in the oven and heat for 30 - 40 minutes. If you need to keep the casserole warm for more time than is needed to reheat the dish, add a little more chicken broth if it is needed and reduce the temperature of the oven to 225 degrees.
8. Sprinkle fresh chopped parsley over the top of the ingredients in the casserole and serve.
Serves 4-6. Multiply the ingredients as is required to serve a crowd. Make this dish for a church pot luck dinner, covered dish dinner, or bake an extra large casserole in an aluminum pan to take to the community shelter.
