Chicken and Rice

Lately I've been in the mood for some one-dish comfort food. Out of my normal realm of cooking, I always feel like I'm cheating when I make one of these... like I should be putting more effort into a healthy dinner.

Dan knows how to cook few things. His go-to dish is chicken, boil-in-bag rice, and steamed broccoli. This is a good meal, but I can't imagine eating it all the time. (Dan would be fine with having that 3 times a week.) Being me, I like to spin things. So, for my husband and my need for something more than boiled, steamed, and baked, I decided we would have some chicken and rice tonight.


You will need:

1 cup uncooked rice (not instant)
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2/3 lb boneless/skinless chicken breast (or about 9oz. pre-cooked chicken breast, diced)
5 oz Vermont sharp white cheddar (I used Cracker Barrel), shredded
2/3 can heart healthy Campbell's Cream of Celery condensed soup
2 c. broccoli florettes (frozen is fine - I used 1 bag of Bird's Eye Deluxe, because they are small)
1 c. lima beans

Preheat oven to 375.

In a 2qt sauce pan, combine rice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
While the rice cooks, lightly salt and pepper chicken. Dice raw chicken, and saute in a pan.

Combine rice (with liquid), chicken, broccoli, lima beans, cream of celery, and cheese in a glass pan. I was going to add diced zucchini, but I ran out of room.


Bake for 35 minutes covered, and 5 minutes uncovered if there is a lot of liquid in the pan (otherwise just leave it covered for the additional 5 minutes).

Enjoy!

Weekday Coq Au Vin

Coq au vin (chicken in wine) is typically a slow-cooked, time-consuming dish. You may remember my "Sunday version"... but what if you want coq au vin on a Tuesday? Or Thursday?

I frequently want delicious food mid-week that I didn't have the good sense to prepare on Sunday when I had the time. Yesterday, the weather turned damp and cold and I wanted a nice, hearty chicken dish.

I went to Trader Joe's (one of my favorite stores) and started collecting the ingredients for what I knew would involve chicken, carrots, and wine. I hadn't thought all the way to coq au vin until I tasted their sample of the dish, which (for a frozen heat-and-eat meal) wasn't too shabby.

I was off and running, determined to make a coq au vin as delicious as my Sunday version in under 2 hours. After 15 minutes of prep work, I left my kitchen at 5:30 pm, and could have eaten at 6:30pm. I chose to let the chicken cook an additional 30 minutes while I finished some lesson plans, and everything turned out perfectly. Even better - today I put the dutch oven of leftovers into the oven, and in 20 minutes had dinner ready.


Quick Coq Au Vin

You will need:

chicken pieces, bone in, skin on. I used 2 breasts with rib meat and 4 drumsticks. Use any combination that you like - enough to feed 4 people.

1/2 bottle of French red wine - I prefer bordeaux. Burgundy would work well, too. Don't go too cheap (quality-wise) on the wine (don't cook with wine you wouldn't drink), especially because you are only using half a bottle. Serving the chicken with a glass of the same wine is always a nice touch, and you can get decent table wines for under $10 if you know where to look (like Trader Joe's).

2 - 3 pieces of smoked bacon (I used applewood smoked uncured bacon), diced

1/4 cup pearl onions (frozen)

about 6 oz condensed cream of mushroom soup - I highly highly highly recommend Trader Joe's condensed portabella mushroom soup... the quality is far superior to Campbell's cream of anything.

3 carrots

about 6 small red potatoes

salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 375.
Salt and pepper chicken generously.
Over medium-high heat, warm some olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven. Place as many pieces of chicken as you can without them touching into the pan to brown. Turn the chicken once and then remove to a plate, cooking the second batch (or however many more you have to brown all the chicken). You just need it in there long enough to brown up the skin a bit, not to cook the chicken. While the chicken browns, dice up your bacon, clean and cut the carrots into large pieces, and quarter the potatoes. (Reserve carrots and potatoes for later - you won't actually need them until about 30 minutes before eating.)

Once the chicken is brown and removed from the pan, saute the bacon. Once done, drain the pan and add the chicken, onions, cream of mushroom soup, and wine. Cover and put it into the oven.

Cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes (or 30 minutes before you would like to eat - this can cook for as long as you like) add in the carrots and potatoes.


That is it. Coq au vin in under 2 hours.
You can serve this over egg noodles if you wish, but it is delicious and filling as-is.
Either way, enjoy!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

I love a multitude of foods. Delicious, quality stuffing is somewhere near the top of the "Foods I Love" list.
I also love roasting a bird, but I don't always have the time, patience, and/or crowd to eat stuffed poultry.

When I got home tonight, I was craving stuffing. Being home alone, I started to think "What can I stuff that won't leave me with a whole bird minus a leg?"

Then I remembered the acorn squashes on the counter. I thought "Yes, those are stuffable."


The stuffing itself is versatile. You can use turkey sausage, veggie sausage, tofu, or no protein at all. To create a gluten-free meal, leave out the croutons.

Serves 4**

You will need:

2 medium - large acorn squashes, halved and gutted
1/2 small onion diced (a little less than 1/4 cup)
1 celery rib, diced
1/2 small granny smith apple, peeled and diced
a handful of dried cranberries
1/2 cup sausage (I used Jimmy Dean Sage)
handful of croutons (a little less than 1/4 cup), cut in half if they are large
salt, pepper, and sage (if you do not use sage sausage)
2 tsp maple syrup divided in half


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roast squash, cut side up, for 45 minutes. (I find a loaf pan works well for holding both halves.)

While those bake:
Saute the onions, celery, and sausage over medium-high heat. Add 1/4 tsp sage. Once the sausage is cooked, add the apples, cranberries, and croutons. Mix well. If stuffing is dry (will depend on the meat you used and how much croutons you put in) add chicken broth or vegetable broth by the Tablespoonful. You can also add a small amount of butter to add moisture.
Season stuffing with salt and pepper to taste.

Once the squash has roasted for 45 minutes, remove from oven, fill halves with stuffing (stuffing will be mounded on top), drizzle maple syrup over the top, and continue to bake for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

*Stuffing can be made beforehand and frozen. You could also use leftover stuffing if that exists in your home. Stuffing tends to be eaten the first time around in these parts...
This would also be great with some toasted sliced almonds, which can be quickly toasted in the pan before browning the onions, and would make a great vegetarian protein option or crunchy add-in.

**I edited this to include 2 acorn squashes after trying to stuff my own halves and finding I had an abundance of stuffing left over. I dumped all the extra stuffing into the pan to bake, but it could have easily fit into 2 squash.