Okay, hear me out. My mom had this recipe on an index card and attributed to her Aunt Alice. The recipe card has seen battle, or possibly a spilled glass of iced tea. It’s hard to read where the ink has run, so I’m not sure if something else should come after consommé (is it a can of soup? A packet of dehydrated soup?) Also, chicken is given in the title but not listed in the ingredients.

I decided to attempt this recipe while visiting my Uncle Mike with the goal of stocking his fridge with some leftovers. I had a pack of chicken breasts, a can of beef consommé (the local grocery didn’t have chicken), and a can of French onion soup (they didn’t have dehydrated onion soup either).

The result is edible, if not pretty. It’s a bit of a salt bomb, so it would be good when you’re low on electrolytes but not so good if you have high blood pressure.

I’ve filled in some details in parentheses below so you can get a sense of how much guesswork is involved. If you want to try a different take on it, be my guest — and share a comment below with your results!

1 cup rice (uncooked)
1 can (cream of) mushroom soup
1 can Consommé (beef)
1 (packet?) dehydrated onion soup (or 1 can French onion soup)
(Chicken, about 1 lb raw breasts or bone-in pieces)

(Cook the rice in the consommé and French onion soup until it’s completely cooked.)

Mix together (the rice/soup mix and cream of mushroom soup) and put into a buttered dish. Place chicken over rice.

Bake at 350F for 1 hour.