Day 11 & 12: Chicken Rice Bake

I don't know why everyone loves this so much. It seriously doesn't look like much of anything that would taste all that impressive, but for whatever reasons my family completely LOVES this dish! So much so that my kids have been known to literally fight over it...no joke, my absolute pickiest eater EJ loves this dish more than almost anything else I make.

I like this recipe because it's incredibly simple to throw together and it's a great comfort feeling food on a day when it's cold outside or when you're not feeling well...kind of like the way chicken noodle soup just somehow has that comfort feeling all built in. It's also very filling, so no side dishes required and for us it also usually makes enough for 2 dinners or at the very least it's enough for dinner and a few lunches the next day depending on how hungry everyone was for dinner that night.

For the GF version it does take a little more prep to make the cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup from scratch, but you can always make this in bulk ahead of time and store in the fridge so you can just dump it in when you're ready. Since I used homemade cream of mushroom soup in the Tater Tot Casserole back on 10/03, I made enough to store a batch in the fridge to save me time in this recipe.

Day 11 & 12: Chicken Rice Bake
Chicken Rice Bake

Chicken Rice Bake

Ingredients:

1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (or 1 batch of GF recipe below)
Onion powder or onion salt
Garlic salt
Pepper
Lawry’s
Paprika
Frozen Chicken breasts

***The secret to this dish tasting so great is in all those spices. I don't measure them, but I would guess I use at least 1 tsp. or a little more than that of the onion salt, garlic powder, and Lawry's seasonings.

GF Cream of Chicken Soup

2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp potato starch
3 ½ cups chicken broth
1 cup light cream or milk
2 cups finely chopped cooked chicken

---for cream of  mushroom soup just substitute cut up chicken pieces with sliced or chopped up mushrooms. I typically use shredded canned chicken here or I've often made it without the chicken or mushrooms and it still tastes great in this dish. For the mushrooms I usually buy a small can of sliced mushrooms and chop them really tiny with my Pampered Chef food chopper.

Directions:

1. Make GF cream of chicken or mushroom soup.

2. In a large 9 x 13 cake pan pour in instant rice and water and stir. Add in onion powder, garlic salt, Lawry's, and pepper to taste. Mix in with rice and water until well blended. You may need to add more water to make sure the 9 x 13 dish is totally full. I normally use about 4 cups of rice with equal parts water, the cream of chicken or mushroom soup and sometimes more water. The pan should be almost totally full to the brim, no less than 1 cm lower than the top of the dish after the chicken is in.

3. Place frozen chicken breasts on top of rice. They should be somewhat in and on top of the rice, not fully submerged. Sprinkle with paprika all over, slightly lighter on the rice areas and a little heavier on top of the chicken.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 min.

Shown above with the whole chicken breasts. I usually use 2 really large chicken breasts and then cut them up into bite sized pieces and mix them in to make the chicken go further. Once this dish is ready it seriously goes FAST, so we were already into eating last night when I remembered to snap a couple of photos. See? It doesn't look like much, but it's a great, simple recipe to keep on hand!

GF Sweet and Sour Chicken

One of the foods my family has been craving and missing since going gluten free is the sweet and sour chicken from Panda Express (and the Orange Chicken, which I also need to find a replacement recipe for!). It's now off limits because of the breading on the chicken.

Fortunately I had tried this recipe before with the store bought frozen popcorn chicken and knew it was a very delicious meal, so the only change to make it GF was to replace the popcorn chicken with boneless/skinless chicken. It's a little more work to cook and cut up the chicken, but it's so well worth it when you're in the mood for Chinese food!

For the fried rice I used instant brown rice because that's what I had on hand, but I've also used instant white rice with this dish. I didn't have any fried rice seasoning packets, so I opted instead to add some seasonings from my pantry (soy sauce, Lawry's season salt, a little garlic powder, onion, etc. but nothing too overpowering  because you don't want your rice to have too strong of a flavor that will take away from the sweet and sour sauce).

 

  

GF Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 medium green pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (La Choy is GF)
  
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (or potato starch)
  
• 1 package (12 ounces) frozen popcorn chicken (or cooked & cut up boneless, skinless chicken)
  

Directions:

1. For GF version, cook and cut up chicken into bite size pieces, set aside.

2. In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry green pepper and onion in oil for 3-4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add chicken.

3. Drain pineapple, reserving the juice in a 2-cup measuring cup; set pineapple aside. Add enough water to the juice to measure 1-1/3 cups; stir in the vinegar, soy sauce and ketchup. 

4. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and cornstarch. Stir in pineapple juice mixture until smooth. Gradually add to the skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. 

5. Add pineapple. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes or until heated through. 

6. (For non GF version, otherwise skip this) Meanwhile, microwave chicken according to package directions. Stir into pineapple mixture. Serve immediately. Yield: 4 servings.

 

Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 envelope fried rice seasoning (or your favorite spices from the pantry)
  
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 green onions, chopped (optional)
  
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 cups cold cooked instant rice (white or brown)
  
• 1/2 cup peas
• soy sauce (optional)
  

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine seasoning mix and water; set aside. 

2. In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry onions in oil for 2-3 minutes. Add egg; stir until scrambled. 

3. Add rice and peas; stir-fry until heated through. Stir in seasoning mixture; stir-fry 3-4 minutes longer or until heated through. Add soy sauce to taste. Yield: 4 servings.

Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken Revisited

So this crockpot recipe for Brown Sugar Chicken turned out pretty good the first time I made it, but I wasn't totally satisfied with the results.

Mainly because, while it was good and flavorful, the chicken was too sweet!!! So this time I added a whole bag of baby carrots and reduced the amount of brown sugar in the recipe to 1/2 cup. I also used a little more chicken than I had the first time (I think I had used less than what the recipe called for) which really made a big difference in how much leftover juices were in the crockpot.

I'm getting better at cooking rice that isn't still chewy. The carrots really helped with the flavor this time!!! Everyone except KW ate this dish and really loved it! EJ and I felt the carrots were still a little too sweet, so next time I'll plan to cut back the brown sugar to only 1/3 cup and I think that will make this dish just about perfect for us.

See how nicely the spices soaked into the chicken tinging it brown above? We didn't pour any additional juices over the rice this time and that really helped cut down on the sweetness factor. The chicken was amazing again...I've never seen chicken that shredded like pork with the touch of a fork before. Definitely a keeper recipe now that we've adjusted it to what our family likes. Sometimes you just have to play with a recipe a little to get it right.

CrockPot Brown Sugar Chicken

Another great recipe from the Crockpot Lady.

This recipe was another very easy dish to throw together. Half of my family really loved it, and the other half really liked it, but thought it was a little too sweet.

So next time I'll probably omit the broth poured over their rice...and maybe reduce the amount of brown sugar a little in the recipe because it honestly was a little surprising just how sweet the initial flavor was...not in a bad way at all, just a little unexpected.

But it is something I'll definitely make again, because I've never made chicken that tender before!

Ingredients:

--12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or 6 boneless, skinless breast halves

--1 cup brown sugar

--1/4 cup lemon-lime soda

--2/3 cup vinegar

--3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic

--2 T soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari wheat free are GF)

--1 tsp ground black pepper

The Directions:

1. Use a 5-6 quart crockpot for this recipe.

2. Plop the chicken into your crockpot. Cover with the brown sugar, pepper, chopped garlic, and soy sauce. Add the vinegar, and pour in the soda. It will bubble!

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-9 hours, or on high for 4-5. The chicken is done when it is cooked through and has reached desired consistency. The longer you cook it, the more tender it will be.

4. Serve over a bowl of white rice with a ladle full of the broth.