In many Amish communities, homemade maple syrup is a staple of late winter and spring. you need a very specific set of weather conditions for syrupy perfection: warmer days, followed by chilly nights, to get the sap flowing in maple trees just right.
And it just so happens that there are several large Amish communities located in this “perfect climate zone for m"aking maple syrup. Among the big maple syrup-making Amish communities, I would include: Geauga County Ohio, the Conewango Valley of New York State, the new Amish settlements in Vermont, and almost any Amish settlement in Canada: Milverton Ontario, and Aylmer, Ontario to name a couple.
Many Amish families have sugar shacks on their property, and making maple syrup is a big deal every spring. And maple syrup is used in so many different ways. Basically, maple syrup is a replacement for sugar. Maple syrup will make its way into breads, cakes, pies, drizzled on cereal, and even into meat dishes like this chicken recipe.
This is sugaring season and maple is king in Amish communities this time of year. We've talked a lot about maple-infused baked goods, but maple can also make a pretty good flavoring for meat.
Many Amish cooks like to soak their chicken in maple syrup. So how about some Maple Chicken and Rice? My mother recently made this. They had some leftover white rice and precooked chicken, so it was easy to assemble. Only took about 20 minutes because they had the rice ready and the chicken precooked. My parent soaked the chicken in maple for about 30 minutes and my Mom said it had great maple flavor. If you have time (I sprung this recipe on them at the last minute), you can let it soak overnight and that'll give it an awesome mapley flavor.
You will definitely notice a difference the longer you soak the chicken in maple. If you only have 30 minutes, that is fine, but if you have 3 hours, that's better.
🙋 FAQ
Pure maple syrup is expensive, so you're forgiven if you don't want to use a bunch of it simply to soak chicken. If you'd rather not use the liquid gold for soaking chicken, you can use pancake syrup, honey, corn syrup, molasses, or imitation maple. All will have slightly different flavors, but they are economical alternatives. This recipe would work great with any of those!
The Ritz crackers make a great topping, but you could use a buttery Club type cracker
You can bake this in a glass baking dish or a 2-quart casserole. This would also be great in a slow cooker or crock pot. I think if you didn't have chicken flavoring (Boullion) on hand, you could get by with some chicken broth or even poultry seasoning. You can read about the differences in all those options here with this primer on another website.
So there is some flexibility with this recipe, probably the key thing is pure maple syrup and soak the chicken for a good 3 hours if you can!
🍁 Amish Maple Chicken and Rice
- 4 cups cooked rice
- 1 /4 cup melted butter
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 teaspoons chicken flavoring
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 4-5 cups of chicken (boneless) soaked for 30 minutes in maple syrup
- 2 cups sour cream
- 1 /4 cup melted butter
- 1 package Ritz crackers (crushed)
📋 Instructions
- Put cooked rice into a 9 X 13 greased pan.
- Mix next 7 ingredients and cook until thickened.
- Pour over rice
- Stir in sour cream to the chicken and maple mixture.
- Put cooked chicken on top of sauce.
- Top with crushed Ritz crackers that are mixed with the melted butter.
- Bake at 350 until heated through, about 30 mins.
- Delicious!
🍁 More Amish Maple Recipes
Amish Maple Bread
🖨️ Full Recipe
Amish Maple Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked rice
- ¼ cup butter melted
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 teaspoons chicken flavoring
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 4-5 cups of chicken (boneless) soaked in maple syrup for at least 30 minutes, 3 hours preferable
- 2 cups sour cream
- ¼ cup melted butter
- 1 package Ritz crackers (crushed)
Instructions
- Put cooked rice into a 9 X 13 greased pan.
- Mix next 7 ingredients and cook until thickened.
- Pour over rice.
- Stir in sour cream to the chicken and maple mixture.
- Put cooked chicken on top of sauce.
- Top with crushed Ritz crackers that are mixed with the melted butter.
- Bake at 350 until heated through, about 30 mins. Delicious!
In the ingredients list you show the recipe requires 2 cups of sour cream, yet why does one of the steps in the recipe say you only need to use 1/2 cup of sour cream to mix into the chicken? Nowhere else is sour cream mentioned? So, where does the other 1-1/2 cups of sour cream go?
Sorry about that, but thanks for letting me know about the error...all sour cream should go in then, I corrected it!