Chicken and Wild Rice, with Onion and Orange Peppers

Weekends in my house are always for cooking.  And I enjoy making food on Saturday, but Sunday meals are always so much fun to make as I get to cook with Sander.  We decide at the end of the week what we will cook together, and come Sunday, have a fun time cooking – each in our own way, making the same dish, with different techniques.

This week he chose chicken breasts and rice.  And though I love chicken and rice, I was drawing a blank on what I wanted to do.  So this recipe is, for the most part, his recipe. His choice was chicken, rice, an onion, and an orange bell pepper.

He used quick cooking white rice, while I used a rice blend by Rice Select, called the “Royal Blend”, which is a blend of Texmati white rice, brown rice, wild rice, and red rice.  It is also a quick cooking (15 minute) rice, but this recipe could very easily be done with long cooking brown, black, or red rices with the addition of a bit more stock, and a few more minutes cooking time.  I really enjoyed the nutty flavor this mix of rice gave to the dish, and cannot wait to make it again.  I plan to do some experimenting with the rice mix as soon as possible.

Chicken and Wild Rice, with Onion and Orange Peppers

Orange Bell Peppers

2 pounds chicken cutlets, cleaned and cut into bite sized pieces *See note
1/2 small onion, diced
1 medium bell pepper (red, orange or yellow)
2 cups wild rice (or rice of your choosing), preferably quick cooking rice
1 3/4 cup chicken stock* See note
2 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil
Salt to taste *

In a large pan (suitable for putting into the oven), saute the onion and bell pepper in a bit of olive oil for about 1 minute.  Add in the chicken, and chicken stock.  Cover and put into a 400F oven for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, add in the rice, and stir.  Leave the lid on for about 10 minutes.  After the 10 minutes, remove the cover completely, and stir.  Don’t put the cover back on.  Continue to bake in the oven until the rice is cooked through.

This method works well with quicker cooking rices.  If you are using wild rice, or brown rice, add in the rice when you add in the chicken.

Note:

• As noted above, I used a quick cooking texmati white, brown, wild and red rice blend.
• You can use whole boneless chicken breasts, or bone-in chicken breasts, just give it 10 more minutes in the oven, before you add in the rice.
• If you do not have chicken stock or chicken broth, use water instead, and adding chicken 2 bouillon cubes (or 2 teaspoons bouillon paste).
• Regarding the salt:  First, if you are using a store bought chicken stock, get the lower sodium version.  Second, if you are using bouillon cubes, taste mid-way through cooking, adding salt then if necessary to keep from having the dish over salty.