Creamy Wild Rice Casserole with Sausage and Mushrooms
Yield: 12 servings
This cozy, flavorful casserole feels like a big hug. It's lightly creamy and full of savory flavor, with chewy, earthy-nutty wild rice at the heart of it all!
Ingredients
Wild Rice
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups whole grain wild rice (I always look for Minnesota wild rice. Do not use cracked wild rice. Do not use a rice mixture that includes other kinds of rice.)
Casserole
- 1 pound sage pork sausage (such as Jimmy Dean brand)
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 6 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound portabella mushrooms, chopped
- 8 ounces button mushrooms, chopped
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- kosher salt, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
Wild Rice
- In a large pot (big enough to add the creamy sausage and mushroom mixture to later) over high heat, bring chicken broth to a boil. Thoroughly rinse the wild rice in a fine mesh colander under running water. Once broth is boiling, stir in wild rice. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook 50-60 minutes. The wild rice is done when a good portion of it is split open and some of it is curled. Drain away any excess liquid, fluff with a fork, and set aside.
Casserole
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- While wild rice is cooking, start frying the sausage. In a very large skillet with tall sides, over medium to medium-high heat, fry the sausage and onion together. Cook for 3-4 minutes, breaking up the sausage into bite-size pieces. Stir in garlic and mushrooms. Cook until sausage is no longer pink and the onions and mushrooms have completely softened.
- Add butter, cream, and soy sauce to the sausage mixture. Then add this mixture to the pot of cooked and drained wild rice. Stir thoroughly to combine. Taste test, adding salt and pepper as needed. This dish should have plenty of flavor - don't be afraid to add salt, or even a bit more of the soy sauce. And I LOVE lots of black pepper!
- Transfer wild rice mixture to a large casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes. Stir and bake for 20 minutes more. Stir and bake for 10 minutes. Mixture should be hot all the way through. Remove from oven, sprinkle with parsley, and serve hot.
Notes
Thank you so much to Laurie Ryan for sharing her version of this wild rice recipe with me, an adaptation of Mary Jo Van Dell’s original recipe.
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1 Calories: 411kcal Carbohydrates: 30g Protein: 14g Fat: 27g Saturated Fat: 13g Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g Monounsaturated Fat: 9g Trans Fat: 0.4g Cholesterol: 70mg Sodium: 385mg Potassium: 564mg Fiber: 2g Sugar: 3g Vitamin A: 613IU Vitamin C: 3mg Calcium: 44mg Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.