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!