Grammy’s Sausage Casserole

My husband asked me to try to make a dish that he grew up eating at his Grammy’s house. He had a basic idea of what was in it, but most of the ingredients are not exactly homemade – cream of chicken, chicken noodle soup from a packet – and I just didn’t want to make it that way. So I decided to brighten up the flavor as well as make it from whole ingredients. This is my version of Grammy’s Sausage Casserole.

The biggest part of transforming this to a totally homemade dish was to create a creamy sauce to replace the canned ingredients. I went with a rosemary and tarragon creamy chicken sauce to add to this casserole. This sauce came out so rich and creamy and full of flavor – I will definitely be using it on another dish.

There are one of two problem most of us have when cooking rice in a casserole – it’s either crunchy or mushy. The method of cooking the rice that I used in this recipe solves both of those problems by preventing the cause of both problems – clumping. By cooking the rice more like pasta, it cooks in individual grains so that it gets cooked all the way through. Then rinsing the starch from the rice before adding it to the other ingredients helps to further ensure that you don’t end up with mushiness.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Grammy’s Sausage Casserole

Adding a modern twist to an old farm classic casserole

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword casseroles, cheese, rice, Sausage

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 lb Ground Breakfast Sausage
• ½ White onion diced
• 3 Carrots diced
• 3 Celery diced
• 3 Garlic Cloves minced
• 2 cup Long Grain Rice
• 4 tbsp Butter
• 4 tbsp Flour
• 2 cup Chicken Stock
• 1 tsp Rosemary
• 1 tsp Thyme
• 1 tsp Taragon
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 cups Cheddar Cheese shredded

Instructions

• Prepare all of the ingredients. Preheat oven to 375deg
• Add water to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once you have a rolling boil, add the rice. Allow to cook for 12 minutes. Drain rice in a colander and rinse with cool water to remove excess starch.
• In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, add sausage to pan. Crumble and cook until no longer pink. Remove sausage from pan to a 13×9 baking dish, reserving grease. Add carrots, onions, garlic, and celery to pan and saute for 5 minutes then add to sausage.
• In the large saute pan reduce heat to medium, add butter, salt, pepper, rosemary, tarragon, and thyme. Once butter is melted add flour and whisk for 3 minutes. Whisk in chicken broth and cook for 3 minutes more, then add heavy cream and cook for 3 minutes.
• Add rice to sausage mixture and pour sauce over top. Stir to combine. Sprinkle with cheese and place in oven for 20 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.