Creamy Chicken and Rice

The goal was Creamy Chicken and Rice from Debbie Harman's "Slow-Cooker Cookbook" on page 49. The recipe is simple enough and I thought with my experience in the kitchen as a mom, that it would be a piece of cake.

I could not have been more wrong!

We have a habit of eating dinner around 5 o'clock because of various sports practices since our oldest was, I dunno, six or seven. IMHO (in my humble opinion) evenings are crazy anyway, but why would you have practice AT dinnertime? Then again, why do we put our kids in these extracurricular activities?

I've said this before, I'll say it again, my crockpot is my best friend in the kitchen! But the dish that was supposed to take three hours on HIGH ended up taking five hours on HIGH!

After three hours the rice wasn't cooked. Nothing worse than uncooked rice in a meal that has rice! (There are probably worse things in life, but at the moment, there's nothing worse!)

So luckily I had made some jam-filled muffins using the Blueberry Muffin recipe on page 122 in my "Hummingbird Bakery" cookbook. Delish! (and another post) And I had some leftovers that I directed the older kids to heat up and serve while I was gone visiting teaching (sharing an uplifting message and checking on ladies I have been assigned to each month -- a church assignment).

I turned the crockpot back on for an hour and added more water, and left. This is after I had already let it go over an hour the original time.
*SIGH* the verdict: edible, but not my best creation in the kitchen. While not the worst, I will have to think about doing that one again.

My version of Creamy Chicken and Rice

4 small chicken breasts
1-1/2 C rice (uncooked)
1/2 tsp salt
1 lg can cream of chicken soup
1-1/2 C sour cream
2 C milk
16 oz frozen broccoli

And then I also added Pampered Chef's Jamaican Rub seasoning... I like that flavor...

Spray crock insert with olive oil. Place chicken in crock. Pour uncooked rice over chicken breasts. Sprinkle salt over rice. Spread soups, sour cream and milk over the top. Cover and cook on HIGH 3 hours or LOW 6 hours. Stir chicken to break into smaller parts. The original recipe says to add the broccoli afterwards and cook on HIGH for 30 more minutes. (That may be where my folly lies. I added the broccoli with everything else.)

Anyway, once I finally had COOKED rice I served it with sharp cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.

My husband liked it! Or at least, he said it was yummy. Next time I will follow the directions to a T.

To Cure My Family

I am making homemade chicken noodle soup to boot out these sick germs that we've been hosting for a week or so. I realize that my friends have had it much worse, but I just can't deal with it any longer. I work full time at home being a mom and transcribing insurance claim interviews.

And I haven't gotten the hang of taking pictures to document my moves yet, so this is another one without pictures.

I chopped 2 onions using my mandolin slicer. I peeled the dry skins off and then sliced the onions almost the whole way down in one direction. Then, using the guard, I pushed the onion across the mandolin with the "chopping" blade so that it cut little squarish pieces. VOILA! And hardly any tears from onions!

Next I threw in a bag of frozen carrots. I think I may have had some carrots in the fridge, and I try to use the frozen stuff for emergencies, but I was just not in the mood to slice carrots this morning.

I added some really thick chicken gravy leftovers from the fridge, just to use it up, and added 6 cups of water. I will probably end up putting in some "better than bouillon" chicken-flavored paste later.

Threw in 4 smallish frozen chicken breasts (I am cooking this on high).

Added some fresh cracked pepper, enough to see that I had added it; about 1 tsp red pepper flakes; 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper; about 4 sprigs of dried rosemary crushed in my hands after pulling the leaves off the twig (that was actually kind of fun/therapeutic); 1/2 tsp cumin; and a little bit of grated nutmeg as I had no allspice (my friend gave me a real nutmeg and I used my grater/zester that I got for Christmas and haven't ever used!).

*Don't forget the noodles! Time allowing, I will make a quick batch of homemade noodles to drop in at the end. They taste so much better than store-bought egg noodles! I'll let you know a recipe if I do that...

Set the crockpot on high and timer for 4 hours! Here it almost 30 minutes later and I'm already starting to get the first smells wafting through my house! So excited!

I did adapt this recipe from "Best Chicken Soup for Colds and Flu" found at GroupRecipes.com Best Chicken Soup for Colds and Flu.

I'll be serving this with homemade French bread not made by me. But I'm going to see if I can find the recipe she used!

Orange Tortilla Soup

So I forgot to take pictures along the way. Forgive me. I have never been super great at journaling.


I have been following several blogs during the past year or so, and this is the recipe I made for our dinner today, being Soup Day, January 26, 2011.


I did tweak the recipe for the things that I had in my pantry. For example, I used a quart of home-canned tomatoes, some liquid drained and I put them in the blender - I almost left them whole. And I did not have any cilantro in the house. Oh, and I used my crock pot!


I sautéed the vegetables in the fry pan first, as directed. I put my liquids in my crock pot instead of a stock pot. I added my vegetables, turned to the crock pot to low and went to work. Well, my work station is in the next room. I transcribe digital audio files of recorded insurance claim interviews. The two little ones played with Legos and dolls while I worked for 45 minutes.


When I was done, I put the chicken in the same fry pan with the OJ and spices it had been marinating in and decided it was time for a nap for my 2yo. Near disaster! I forgot about the chicken on the stove and decided to take care of some laundry. The OJ burned, but the chicken was salvageable. In fact, it was downright tasty!


Okay, I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself...


Let me start at the beginning.


1) I have a mandolin slicer. I can do Julienne slices, french fry cuts, thin slice, thick slice, chopped, it was cool! I used all 3 cutting inserts that I own! I diced the onion (cut the onion one way and then sent it through the mandolin slicer the other direction); I sliced the celery; I Julienned the carrots after I peeled them.


2) I chopped my own garlic (don't have a garlic press - I had one once upon a time when we were first married, but I never used it so I gave it away).


3) I use Better Than Bouillon chicken base (yes, it has some hydrolyzed soy protein - not a fan of soy) to make my chicken broth - did 3 cups water, so 1 TBS chicken base.


4) I used 1 qt home-canned tomatoes after draining some of the liquid and putting it in the blender and basically getting rid of any chunks, instead of tomato sauce and water.


5) Used store-brand OJ and made it up for normal drinking, and used 2 cups.


6) Added the chicken broth, OJ and tomatoes to the crock pot and turned it on low, then added the vegetables after sautéing them first.


7) I marinated frozen chicken breasts in OJ and Pampered Chef Jamaican Jerk Rub and then cooked the chicken in the same. Then I diced the chicken and put it in the soup.


8) Turned the crock pot to keep warm and added some cumin for a little more flavor as I did not use any taco seasoning mix with my chicken.


The result, well, I love the taste! I plan to serve tortilla chips and sour cream and a little cheese, maybe olives... I hope the kids like it! They are the final judges!


So next time I will have pictures to go along with my post... MAYBE!