Family Recipe: Chicken on a Sunday

This week, the recipe I chose to try out from my mother's recipe box is Chicken on a Sunday. The name of the recipe is what caught my eye first. The thing that cinched it was when I saw the small note in the top right of the card "good-best" and an X on the upper left side. You see, there were about five recipes with the same title. Some said "good", others said "good-better." This told me that my mom was on a search for the best Chicken on a Sunday recipe, and when she found it, she wanted to be sure to remember which one she liked!

Chicken on a Sunday originated as a way for busy moms to ensure that their family had a hot meal ready for them when the family returned home from church. It's a super simple recipe that only uses a few ingredients (I had all of them in my pantry).

Mom's recipe called for cooking in a baking pan in the over at 250 degrees for 2 1/2 to 3 hours "During S.S. and church." I decided to change it up a bit - I cooked mine on high in the crock pot for about 3 hours. I also used chicken thighs instead of a full frying chicken cut into pieces (I still have no idea how to cut up a chicken).

The result? It was super tasty! The chicken was very tender. The only thing I would change (and I'm changing it in the recipe below) would be to put the chicken in the crockpot first, THEN the rice. When I did it the way it was supposed to be layered in the baking pan, i found some of the rice had not cooked after the time was up, so I had to stir everything up and let it continue to cook until the rice had cooked. Other than that, the transition from oven to crockpot was a breeze!

INGREDIENTS

1 c. milk
1 c. rice (uncooked)
6 chicken thighs (recipe calls for 1 frying chicken cut in pieces)
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup

1. Sprinkle raw rice on bottom of baking dish (if using crockpot, you'll want to put the rice on top of the chicken).
2. Put chicken pieces on rice (again, place this first if using a crockpot)
3. Sprinkle dry onion soup mix over chicken.
4. Mix mushroom and celery soup with milk, then pour over chicken.
5. Cover with foil and bake in 250 degree oven 2 1/2 to 3 hours (or in a crockpot on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours).

The recipe gives you your protein and carbs - you'll want to serve with a vegetable on the side.

Note: Nutrition facts assume the use of chicken thighs rather than a frying chicken.