Bacon Chicken BBQ Ranch Casserole

The other night I made far too much rice pilaf.  This wasn’t a problem however, because I knew I would find a way to make a quick and easy dinner with it.  Luckily for me, the night before I went to make this, my favorite TV show The Chew talked about how casseroles were on the comeback, trendy again.  Score! I love them, I have never stopped making them but I was afraid it might sound old fashioned to write a post about making a casserole.

My casserole making days began with a can of cream of soups.  I still use them from time to time because they provide that comforting 1980’s flavor.  I keep them in the pantry because I never know when I want one.  Tonight I wanted to make a casserole without one and to find pantry ingredients I felt most people would have on hand.  The goal was fast and easy, comforting, and still have some nutrition.  I said some.

Bacon, oh bacon.  I decided to lead with bacon in the title, it’s flavor is tasted in every bite. However, if you want more of a crisp, precook your bacon or place your bacon in strips along the top of the casserole and crumble at the end of the baking and mix it in.  The way I did it, some pieces crisped up, but others did not.  They were cooked through, but still soft.

I used frozen broccoli instead of fresh.  I didn’t have fresh, it didn’t look great at the market, and I confess, I was tired and just wanted to be fast…so ‘Team Go Frozen!’ I know I say “to taste” for both black pepper and salt and that is actually hard to do with raw chicken and potentially raw bacon in the mix, so use your own cooking judgment for this.