GidgetRoots - Episode 4: Chicken and Rice
To begin, lets take a moment to say that it was a rough day with regard to work. I didn't sleep well Sunday night and I found Monday to be uneventful and quite boorish. I was looking forward to going over to my great-aunts' home to make this dish and was more excited after seeing the recipe seemed pretty simple. After arriving I was already feeling better and anticipating the newest concoction.
Next, let's talk about one of the key components of the dish - the chicken. (cluck cluck). The first direction of the recipe says to "Dice up about 4 chicken breasts into bit size pieces and brown them. After they are browned drain away the grease." On the surface this seems to be simple, right? Well, let me explain the issues I had with this superficially straightforward statement. To begin, the direction does not specify boneless or bone-in, skinless, or skin-on. I had on hand boneless skinless chicken breast and that is what we used. Equally important the part mentioning "drain away the grease" had me confuddled. Chicken breast (especially the boneless skinless variety) does not typically cook off any grease, so we decided it would be best to go ahead and add a Tbs. of olive oil to the pan to brown the chicken bites with ease.
The second part is where the knot of instruction frayed in a multitude of directions. "In your pan put 1 medium can of tomato sauce or tomato soup, whichever you use, along with two cans of water. Chop up an onion and put into the pan." I remember reading about the onion and although the recipe said to put directly in the pan (which mind you is the baking pan, not the frying pan / stove-top pan that you are going to use to brown the chicken - again - reading ahead is extremely helpful 😁) What size baking pan, you ask? We will get to that in a minute. Rather than adding the raw onion to the baking dish, we decided to sweat the onion with garlic in the stove-top pan where we will be browning the chicken to help infuse some extra flavor into the chicken bites.
*Side note, at this point I was thoroughly enjoying myself and being a little cheeky, channeling sarcasm from loved ones long ago. The recipe said to "add to pan" all these different things; so I humorously added everything to the pan... before removing everything and adding their contents to the baking dish, as was intended - what can I say? Simple things amuse me and I crack myself up!*
At this stage, after adding the can of soup (what size!?) to the baking pan, the recipe continues to have the addition of the rice, salt, pepper, and optional salsa and garlic to the "pan," too. Notice a thematic WHAT SIZE repetitious question by this episode? We went with a standard 10.5oz can of condensed Campbell's tomato soup, and 2 cans of water. (See note below about adding salsa).
We added 1c. of rice and seasoned the soup mixture with salt and pepper. Next, "add some salsa and garlic, if you like"; we already added the garlic to the chicken, so we now decided to simply add a little salsa. "Keep in mind we were excited to see salsa as an ingredient because it has a lot of flavor and I personally LOVE me some salsa. My aunt looks down at the recipe book with the salsa jar in hand and in futile exasperation exclaimed, "add salsa, well, how much salsa!?" This my dear readers, is the question of the century! Time for a drink!
Some giggling ensued followed by "eh, let us guesstimate"; I was about to pour the salsa directly into the pan when the voice in my head yelled "WAIT!? How much are you adding!?" Tee hee. I grabbed a measuring cup and measured out about a half cup of salsa, adding the delicious condiment to the baking pan rice mixture. Once the chicken bites were browned, we added the contents of the stove-top pan (chicken, onion, garlic) to the baking pan. Oh right, we were going to circle back around to 'what size baking pan?' Well, we started out with a smaller size baking dish, about a 9x9; however after we started cooking the chicken we realized it seemed a bit small. Again the age old question of measurement came from our lips, "what size". Luckily for us (and another warning to read the ENTIRE recipe) at the bottom of the page a simple sentence was stated "This will fix a 9x13 pan. THANK YOU FAMILY! (Luckily we hadn't added any ingredients to it yet, so we didn't dirty up an extra dish). Mix well to incorporate.
Finally it was time to cover the pan and bake in a 350 degree oven until the rice is done. The recipe also says you may need to add some water while it is cooking. We didn't have to. Once we had mixed everything together, it looked like there was a lot of liquid in the pan. I think because we added both the two cans of water AND the salsa there was a little more liquid than necessary; so next time I think we will add 1 can of water and the salsa to alleviate the extra liquid.
HOW LONG?! Notice it just says "until the rice is done"? Well, for those of you reading this we baked the chicken and rice dish about 50 min to an hour. You're welcome. ☺
While the chicken and rice was cooking we enjoyed one another's company and good conversation. You never know what topics will arise just by organic discourse among loved ones. When we thought the dish was about ready my great-aunt Marcia whipped up a delicious side salad pairing to accompany the chicken and rice. (It was so beautiful and I LOVE their napkin choice!)
Now, we did check the chicken about 20 minutes and it was NO where close to being cooked. That was fine by us, as we sat and continued our conversation about gardening, wild flowers, edible berries and more.
I also discovered my aunt actually used to make the dish using whole pieces of chicken rather than cutting into bite size pieces. We found it was much easier to eat the way we prepared it on Monday, however we think it may taste just slightly better with chicken thigh, as they typically hold more flavor than breast.
Finally, you actually were able to smell the chicken and rice permeating through the kitchen and into the dining area and we knew it was time to eat!
The dish is ready once the rice had absorbed the liquid and was cooked through. At this point (and even now typing this up) I salivated at the aroma of this colorful dish. I couldn't wait to try it!
Time to plate up! Guess what? IT WAS DELICIOUS! Although we stumbled through some technicalities in the recipe, the final product ended up being so scrumptious - I am only slightly embarrassed to admit I personally had two to three services of the masterpiece. The fun part to this recipe is you can customize to fit your palate! Don't like soup, try using just 1c. to 1 1/2 c. salsa; don't like spice? Use medium or homemade salsa instead of medium.
After over half of the dish was devoured my aunt asked if I would like some raspberries. The sweet and slightly sour taste of raspberries sounded like the perfect ending to a successful evening. They were fresh picked from a local site and she served it with small half and half creamers, the kind you would find at a coffee bar or at a restaurant. I had never had berries and crème together (except of the whipped variety) and let me tell you - YUMMO! I think it is a new favorite desert for me! It definitely was the perfect finish to the meal. The night had to come to an end but with our souls happy and our bellies full, this was definitely a #gidgetfavorite recipe from #myancestors that will continue to live on in our family.
Thank you so much for the support and I hope you are enjoying the journey as much as I am!
NEXT 'EPISODE / CHAPTER' "Stuffed Mushrooms" (stuffed is in quotations as it is more of a mushroom casserole dish than the traditional "stuffed" mushroom appetizer one first thinks of when they read that title. Although we won't be making it until closer to mid-August, I am looking forward to the fun and games this next experiment will provoke.
Until then - find your happy place and never grow up!
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ORIGINAL RECIPE
CHICKEN AND RICE
You will need:
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 cup rice
- 1 medium can tomato sauce or
- 1 can tomato soup
- Salsa
- Onion
- Salt & Pepper
- Garlic
Dice up about 4 chicken breasts into bite size pieces and brown them. After they are browned drain away the grease.
In your pan put in 1 medium can of tomato sauce or tomato soup, which ever you use, along with two cans of water. Chop up an onion and put into the pan.
Add 1 cup of rice along with salt and pepper.
At this point you can add some salsa and garlic if you like. Add chicken to this mixture and stir well.
Cover the pan and bake in 350 degree oven until the rice is done. You will need to add some water while it is cooking, as the rice uses up all the liquid you have in your pan.
This will fill a 9x13 pan.
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