For the last night, I chose a chicken dish I found on Pinterest ages ago: Arroz Con Pollo. Basically, rice with chicken. It seemed like a fairly easy and potentially tasty meal. And cheap, too, which is always a plus.
I was much more with it today and actually remembered to get the chicken out to thaw. The way this week has gone, I'm pretty impressed I managed that much.
Anyway, let's see how this one turns out!
You will need:
- Chicken. The original recipe called for bone-in chicken breasts with skin. I don't keep those on hand, so I used 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which I (of course) cut up.
- Rice. However much rice you would like to serve. I used 1 cup of uncooked rice.
- Chicken broth. This will be replacing the water you would normally cook the rice in. So, the amount of broth you need depends on your rice. Some brands of rice call for a 1:1 ration of rice and liquid. The rice I buy uses 1 part rice to 2 parts liquids. So, I used 2 cups of liquid. For the record, 1 can of chicken broth equaled approximately 1-3/4 cups, so I used water to make up the difference. Does that make sense? Okay, good, let's move on.
- Chopped onion. However much you like.
- Minced garlic.
- Flour for dredging the chicken.
- Salt & pepper.
- Paprika (Wow, I've used a lot of paprika this week.)
- 1 can diced tomatoes, drained, OR 1 cup fresh chopped tomatoes, OR 1 tablespoon tomato paste. I used a can of diced tomatoes.
This is a pretty easy recipe. All you do is:
1. Mix your flour (about 1/2 cup), salt, pepper, and paprika together. Don't be afraid of the paprika.
2. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture and brown in oil in a heavy skillet.
3. Remove the browned chicken, add a little bit more oil, and dump in your uncooked rice, stirring well to coat in oil.
4. Brown the rice in the oil. Keep stirring fairly regularly, as you don't want the rice to burn.
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| Browned white rice. |
5. Once the rice is browned, add in your chopped onion and garlic (and more oil if you need it) and cook until the onions are tender.
6. Add the chicken back into the pan on top of the rice. Pour the chicken broth and tomatoes on top of everything. Add some black pepper and some oregano on top.
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| Love the colors! |
7. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to simmering, and cover. Cook for a long as you would for regular rice, in this case 15 minutes. Some brands of rice take longer.
8. And that's it. Serve and enjoy.
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| Look at the pretty! |
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| Yummy! |
The verdict: This was pretty good. A bit on the bland side and definitely needs some more spice of some kind, just not sure what. The rice cooked a bit unevenly, so some was over cooked and some under. The chicken was glorious, though.
Eleanor's opinion: Nope. Not happening, although she did tell me it smelled good.
Cost analysis:
Chicken - $1/breast, so $2
Broth - $1
Diced tomatoes - less than $1
Half an onion - $0.50 or so
Everything else I had on already. So, let's call it $6 for everything, including the rice. That makes it $3 per person, and there are enough leftovers for my lunch tomorrow!
We will definitely be making this one again.
And that brings us to the end of my New Recipe Challenge: 6 Days and 6 New Recipes. Some of them, like the cube steak, I will never, ever make again. Others, like the beef tips and the arroz con pollo will definitely be entering the meal rotation.
This blog won't solely be focused on recipes and cooking, but I'm not sure yet what my next topic shall be. Lots of ideas but no cash to implement any of them. If there's anything you all would like to here about, please let me know!
Namaste.
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