Good Eating Monday: Chicken & Rice!

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 Welcome to the first week of November! 
November is also "National Novel Writing Month."
Really.
If you would like to participate, signing up is simple and free
 at NaNoWriMo's website.
The goal is for participants to write a 50,000-word novel before the clock hits midnight on Nov. 30 and since it's Nov 5 already, you'd better get crackin'!

Today's Good Eating topic is my own recipe for a oven casserole I just call "Chicken & Rice."
Perfect for chilly winter days!
Though you can use Turkey. I recently slow-cooked a couple turkey thighs and used one of those and it was delicious---so delicious I plan on cooking up 4 in couple weeks and making two 10x13 pans worth for our Sunday Night Bible Study group!

Chicken & Rice
Oven: 400
Ingredients:


6-8 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs
1 10.5oz can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
1 cup favorite frozen veggie: peas, peas & carrots, mixed veggies or chopped broccoli.
1 cup medium grain rice
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 teaspoons dried Rosemary
salt & pepper to taste, if you like
Low-fat milk
water
optional: Parmesan cheese
 
Directions:
Spray 10x13 baking pan with oil spray. Place chicken thigh in pan and put in over. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn and bake another 10 minutes.
 
While chicken is baking: empty can of cream soup into a saucepan on stove top. Fill empty soup can with milk and stir in can to pick up remaining soup, then pour milk into soup in pan slowly, stirring constantly to keep relatively smooth. Then add 2 cans full of water and stir in. Turn heat on low under pan to warm soup up, which will reduce cooking time in oven. Stir garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper & frozen veggie choice into soup.
 
When chicken is done, remove thighs from pan and drain off grease. Next add rice to the empty pan, then pour soup over rice, giving it a light stir to spread rice evenly through-out mix. Now gently place thighs back in pan into the soup one at a time, neatly in a rows: 3-4 on one side and 3-4 on other.
Optional: shake Parmesan cheese over top of either just chicken or over whole casserole.

Place in oven and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn oven off, but leave casserole in over an additional 10-15 minutes to let rice fully absorb all soup. Casserole should be golden brown and all liquid completely absorbed by rice. (If you do not pre-heat soup, baking time will be 45 minutes to an 1hr, plus a 10 minutes rest.)
 
Substitutions:
*You can use bone-in thighs: just pre-cook longer: 15 minutes each side before draining. (Breasts dry out, which is why thighs are preferable.) You could also use ground meats or kielbasa sausage & change the seasoning accordingly.

*If you have leftover chicken, turkey or rotisserie chicken available, you can skip the pre-baking and the shredded meat directly to pan with the rice, top with soup, veggies & seasoning and just bake.
 
*Other spice combinations can be used instead of rosemary: oregano, basil, sage, savory, bay leaves. The addition of curry and raisins gives the dish a nice Indian flavor.

*Instead of frozen veggies you can use fresh: broccoli, chopped onion, scallions or sliced mushrooms. And you can used a favorite shredded cheese instead of Parmesan.
 
 With this dish, only your imagination is the limit!
Eat up, me hearties, yo-ho!


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