-
Prep time
15 minutes
-
Cook time
1 hour
-
Serves
4 to 6
Author Notes
For my family down in Georgia, broccoli cheese rice casserole is air. We inhale it every Thanksgiving and live off the leftovers for days. It's the best kind of dish; you've got all your major food groups: broccoli (veg), cheese (protein), and rice (love) ... or at least that's what we tell ourselves. Anyway, we only make it once or twice a year for the holidays, which is probably why it's so precious to us. This year, I thought I'd take my Aunt Anne's original recipe and spread it out onto a sheet pan for extra crisp and chew (those are the best parts). Broccoli cheese rice casserole is easily one of the most comforting side dishes to go alongside everything else, and it could even replace the stuffing should you be so bold as to do that. Or if you're like my family, for whom rice is king, then this may supersede the turkey as your table's centerpiece. —Eric Kim
Test Kitchen Notes
Featured in: The Unlikely Star of My Family's Thanksgiving Table. —The Editors
Continue After Advertisement
Ingredients
-
1
stick unsalted butter
-
1
red onion, diced
-
1 teaspoon
granulated sugar
-
4 ounces
bread, such as brioche, cut into bite-size pieces
-
2 cups
cooked, short-grain white rice
-
20 ounces
frozen broccoli florets
-
8 ounces
shredded sharp cheddar cheese
-
8 ounces
sour cream
-
1 cup
whole milk
-
2 teaspoons
kosher salt, plus more as needed
-
Olive oil, for greasing pan
-
1/4 cup
panko bread crumbs
-
Parmesan, for grating over
Directions
-
Preheat oven to 400°F.
-
Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet, then sauté onion with a pinch of salt and teaspoon of sugar for a good 15 to 20 minutes, until caramelized. Add bread to the buttery onions and sauté for another 10 minutes, until slightly toasted. Set aside.
-
In a very large bowl, toss together the rice, frozen broccoli, cheese, sour cream, milk, 2 teaspoons salt, and buttery onion-bread mixture until well mixed. Spread into an olive oil–greased half sheet pan, then sprinkle top with panko and a light dusting of Parmesan.
-
Bake for 30 minutes, or until bubbly and slightly browned at the edges.
-
Do Ahead: You can prep the casserole completely in advance and freeze it or fridge it. Just add a few minutes to the bake time when you're ready to cook it.
Eric Kim was the Table for One columnist at Food52. He is currently working on his first cookbook, KOREAN AMERICAN, to be published by Clarkson Potter in 2022. His favorite writers are William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway, but his hero is Nigella Lawson. You can find his bylines at The New York Times, where he works now as a writer. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @ericjoonho.
See what other Food52ers are saying.