Creamy Rice and Pasta with Chicken and Vegetables

CREAMY RICE AND PASTA WITH CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

 

 

 

This one dish dinner is cooked in a single pan and is reminiscent of the traditional standard Rice-a-Roni available on market shelves. This home made version takes it from a side dish to meal on it's own.

 

 

 



 Ingredients:
1 7.02 ounce package vermicelli pasta
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
4 tablespoons butter
6 cups hot water
6 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder (or 6 cups chicken broth)
1 8 ounce block of cream cheese
1 cup cooked chicken cut into bite size pieces (mine came out of a can)
1 cup finely diced vegetables of your choice
1 tablespoon dried parsley leaves (optional)

Melt the butter in a large deep skillet over medium heat

We're going to brown the entire package in the butter

If you buy in bulk, it's just a little over a cup

Sprinkle the pasta over the butter and while it's browning

Open the cream cheese and let it sit out to softern

Remember to stir the pasta, as it should be browning nicely.

Now measure one cup of rice

And pour it in, mix it up,  and continue to brown

Now open the chicken and pour the broth into the measuring cup

Like this, we will use it.

And when it looks like this, you are ready to add the liquid

Pour in four cups of very hot water

It's really going to bubble and steam, reduce the heat to low

And add two more cups of water, for a total of six cups altogether.

If you are using a prepared broth, you will still need six cups.

 

Add however much bouillon you need to for whatever kind you are using

to make six cups, because that's how much water we added. I also like to

add one teaspoon for the pot.

Now add the chicken, I smash mine all up with my hands  as I add it

See, the can is about a cup, and when I use leftovers, I use a cup

Now add your veggies, I'm using some frozen veggies that I make up and

freeze myself. This batch has celery, onion, carrots, mushrooms, black olives

orange and yellow bell peppers, and some green onions. Use fresh, use what

you like and what you have on hand. I have made this with spinach only, with

broccoli only, I make it with whatever I have in my veggie crisper. Frozen mixed

veggies or a drained can of veg-all would work. You just need a cup of chopped

up veggies!

Pour them in

And just because I like it, I'm adding a tablespoon of parsley flakes, but

this is optional.

Now still it all up, put a lid on the pan, and simmer it until the rice

is done. But don't let all the liquid be absorbed, we need just a little

moisture left to make the creamy sauce.

Mine looked like this after 10 minutes.

While this is simmering, chunk up the cream cheese.

Let it simmer on down. If your rice is still crunchy, add another cup of broth,

but remember we need about this much moisture left.

Now dot those cream cheese chunks all over and spoon the hot rice over

the cheese.

Stir it lightly to make sure the cheese is all melted and stirred in.

Now turn off the burner, put the lid back on, and let it sit for 10 more minutes.

The heat will be enough to absorb the liquid and develop a creamy sauce.

After 10 minutes, remove the lid, stir some more and it's ready to serve.

I served mine on this occasion with some cheesy garlic bread. This has become

a staple in my household, happy to share.

 

Enjoy!

 

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Stuffed Portabellas

CHICKEN BROCCOLI ALFREDO STUFFED PORTABELLAS

 

The last time I went shopping I picked up a pack of portabella mushrooms because stuffed portabellas is one of our favorite meals. Served with a salad it's a perfect dinner for the two of us.

 

Here's the portabellas

 

 And here's most of what went into my creation. As you can see, I'm currently a WalMart shopper so I'm going to use a jar of store brand sauce and a can of store brand chicken meat. And next I'm going to use up all the odds and ends of stuff I have on hand.

 





The first thing we're going to do is remove the stems from the portabellas and scrape out most of the gills with a spoon. Save the stems, we're going to use them in the filling.

 

 Next, I sprinkled each one with a little olive oil and some Romano cheese.

 I chopped up half an orange bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic and a shallot.  You can use what ever kind of bell peppers you have on hand and any kind of onion.

 

Now I chopped up the mushroom stems along with a couple other mushrooms that really needed to be used up. It was about 1/2 cup all together.

 

I also had half a bag of frozen chopped broccoli, so I nuked it just long enough to thaw it out, and put it on a paper towel to drain along with the can of chicken. My fear is that with the alfredo sauce it's all going to run all over the place when I bake it!

Time to cook. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. We're going to sauté the peppers, onions and garlic in a little olive oil until they just start to sweat.

And then I stirred in the chopped mushrooms. I'm going to sauté these until the mushrooms release all their juices and then cook them til all the moisture is gone.

I'm still worried that with the sauce it's going to be too runny, and because I don't have any bread crumbs on hand, I'm going to use these almost stale crackers that I found in the cupboard.

I put them in a baggie and crushed them.

The mushrooms are done cooking, so I turned off the burner

Next, I really squished all the moisture out of the chicken and broccoli as I could

and then added it to the pan

Next I added the cheeses. I had this much parmesan

and this much mozzerella

and that didn't seem like very much so I added some romano too. Probably about 3/4 cup altogether

Then in went the crackers (save a couple pinches for the topping) and the alfredo sauce, (again, save a couple tablespoons for the topping)

And then I mixed it all together

And then I pilled it into the portabellas

I topped each one with about a tablespoon of reserved sauce and sprinkled them with the reserved cracker crumbs and a little more romano. And into the oven they go for 12-15 minutes.

 

 And while they baked I used up half a bag of leftover salad mix and my last big tomato to make a salad. Then decided to spread the salad out on a plate to make a bed for the mushrooms to sit on.

And when the time was up, they looked like this

And I placed them on the salad beds and served them up.

 

Enjoy!