Before the kitchen project, I wanted to have some chicken and rice, so I searched those words on Pinterest and WHAM! about a jillion recipes came up. I didn't want anything with cream of mushroom/chicken/whatever soup though, so I was delighted to find a recipe that used salsa as the sauce. The ingredients are super simple - you probably have them at home right now:
rice
chicken
salsa
cheese
I put 1 1/2 cups of brown rice in a 13x9 pan. Then I put boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins on top of the rice. I added 2 cups of salsa (homemade!) and a cup of chicken broth. (The original recipe calls for water, but I had chicken broth, so I used it for extra flavor.) I added a touch of salt and pepper. and popped it in the oven at 350 degrees. Simple, right?
I let it cook for an hour. When I pulled it out of the oven, the chicken was done, but the rice was crunchy. I added another cup of water and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so. Checked again; rice was still crunchy. Put in another cup of water and covered it with foil. 15 or 20 minutes later, I checked again. There were still some crunchy rices, but it was edible.
When I took it out of the oven, I sprinkled freshly grated cheddar cheese on it and let it melt, then I served it up.
The taste was fantastic. The rice disappointed me, but it was still good.
Next time I will increase the amount of fluid and I will cover the dish with foil because the steam will help the rice cook better. I liked using the homemade salsa (Pioneer Woman recipe). The salsa recipe is easy to make, yields a lot of salsa and has a nice little kick to it. Plus there are no chunklets of tomato. I like a smooth salsa. It worked great in the chicken and rice recipe.
By the way, the original salsa chicken casserole recipe comes from this website.
I'm happy too because I have leftovers that I can take for lunch tomorrow!
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