Main Dish

Brown Rice & Chicken

Comfort foods are great to repeat over and over in the kitchen.  They welcome family and friends.  Growing up some of my favorite comfort foods were Tuna Noodle Hotdish, Mom’s Fried Chicken and Chicken & Rice Hotdish.  Being from the midwest, comfort foods often times were hotdishes (AKA casserole, for those of you not from the midwest).  This recipe is not a hotdish and is actually made on the stove, but really reminds me of the ones I grew up with at home and at my friends’ homes.  When I made this tonight, I decided to use some leftover frozen rotisserie chicken I had in the freezer.  That was a great move!  It was more tender and in finer pieces, which works well with the rice and peas.  Also, it eliminated any planning ahead with thawing chicken and cut the preparation time drastically.

1/2 t garlic powder
1/8 t pepper
1 skinless boneless chicken breast, halves (~1#)
2 T butter (with a little EVOO)
29 oz GF chicken broth
2 c frozen peas
1 T fresh thyme leaves, crushed or 1 t dried
3 c uncooked quick cooking brown rice
4 T parmesan cheese, grated

1.  Combine garlic powder and pepper, sprinkle on chicken.
2.  In skillet over medium high heat, melt butter/oil, cook chicken 10 minutes or til browned.  Remove, set aside.
3.  In same skillet, combine peas, broth and thyme.  Heat to boiling  Stir in rice.  Return chicken to skillet.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook 10 minutes or til rice is tender and liquid absorbed, stir occassionally.  Remove chicken to platter and stir cheese into rice before serving.  
8 servings.
Here’s what I did to revise the recipe using frozen rotisserie chicken:
I sprinkled a little garlic powder and pepper on the frozen chicken and then started at step 3.  Slick…huh?!