Chicken and Rice Casserole - Marc Hill

RECIPE

6 pieces of cut up chicken

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of celery soup

2 cans water

1/4 cup long grain uncooked rice

melted butter

9 x 13 glass pan

 

In baking pan stir water and soup until smooth.  Pour rice over soup mixture, evenly.  Do not stir.  Take chicken pieces, roll in butter and place in pan on top of mixture.  Salt and pepper and bake 425 degrees (preheat oven) for 1 hour uncovered.

 

 

You could think of Marc Hill as the Chris Widger of the 1983 White Sox team.  A lesser-remembered name, he served as backup catcher to a much, much bigger beast.  In Widger's case it was A.J. Pierzynski; In Hill's case it was Carlton Fisk.

Not to discount Hill's lengthy playing career.  Over 14 seasons - most of them as a backup catcher - Hill had stops with the Cardinals (1973-74), Giants (1975-80), Mariners (1980) and finally the White Sox (1981-86).

The cavalcade of casseroles continues with this quick 'n' easy offering of chicken and rice, and the inevitable can of cream of mushroom soup.

 

This recipe really captures the essence of 1980s cooking - which was essentially a carryover of 1960s and 1970s cooking.  Many recipes in the 1983 White Sox cookbook are like this one: you aren't so much cooking something from scratch as you are just mixing a bunch of pre-processed ingredients together and throwing them in the oven.

 

I chose a package of drumsticks for this one and they worked out fine.  I mean, it's really hard to screw up such a bake-by-numbers recipe.  It's just the sort of dish you'd expect from a backup catcher.  A decent night, nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done.  That, is your chicken and rice casserole.

 

FINAL SCORE - Decent, nothing spectacular, got the job done.