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One skillet dinner recipes like this chicken and rice are the perfect way to have a delicious weeknight meal without as much to clean up afterward. Tender chicken breasts, rice, and vegetables are all cooked up and served from one skillet. Less cookware means less dishes!
This post was originally published in the Greenwood Daily Journal on Saturday February 25, 2012
Say the word casserole and a variety of images come to mind. Some good and others, not so much. Take it a step further and think of one skillet dinner meals and thoughts of Hamburger Helper are conjured up in our brains.
Somehow over the years , a kind of food snobbery has taken root in our subconscious and we automatically turn our noses up at anything that uses one of these 2 words in its title.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Just because you are making a casserole, it doesn’t mean that you are going to re-create your Great-Aunt Ina’s Tuna Noodle Surprise. There are SO many options, and lets face it, the bottom line is that one dish meals are exactly what we need on these long, cold winter days.
There are whole cookbooks devoted to casseroles these days. Recently, on a trip to the bookstore, I spent 30 minutes poring over a new cookbook that had nothing other than casserole and one skillet dinner recipes. Beautifully presented, these recipes included a few exotic meals as well as the more mundane, crowd-pleasing dishes. My point is, there was something for everyone.
Banish all thoughts of skillet meals and casseroles as high in fat and sodium and low on taste and appeal. Not every great dish has to start with carbs and condensed soups. This notion was made popular in the 70’s when condensed soup based casseroles made their way into almost every home cooks meal rotation. When I first started cooking for myself, I went to my trusty Campbell’s Condensed Soup cookbook on more than one occasion.
Call them what you will – a hot dish, one skillet dinner, or casserole, the magical combination of pasta, rice, meats, veggies and a saucy base is comfort food.
If you have a baby, a death in the family, church supper, or new neighbor move in, chances are good that you will see one of these chilling in the refrigerator just waiting to be baked up. Even a novice home cook can handle baking something at 350 degrees until hot and bubbly.
Not just known as a mystery dish, the casserole is an easy one dish meal for busy weeknights. Not to mention that you can sneak an awful lot of goodness between the layers of wavy noodles and a cream sauce!
So on this, my one year anniversary of writing for the Greenwood Daily Journal about all of my culinary hits and misses and all of the life that happens along the way, I give you what every busy mom that likes to cook has in her hip pocket: a one skillet dinner recipe for chicken and rice.
Thank you for coming back week after week, giving me all of your feedback and enjoying this column. There is nothing I love more than bumping into one of you while out and about and chatting about food and life. This, my friends, is one thing we all have in common.
This has been a real blessing for my family who, believe it or not, actually enjoy reading what I have to say… almost as much as I enjoy writing it.
I hope you love this one skillet dinner recipe!
Total Servings 6 servings
10 minPrep (inc. refrigeration & rest time)
25 minCook Time
35 minTotal Time
Ingredients
- 3 large bone-in chicken breasts (around 3 pounds total) cut in half crosswise OR
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half.
- salt and pepper
- 2 Tb olive oil
- 1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
- 3 medium peeled carrots, diced
- 5 medium-sized cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp of dried thyme
- 1 1/2 C long grain white or brown rice
- 1/2 C dry white wine
- 3 1/2 C of low sodium chicken stock or broth
- 1 C frozen peas
- 2-4 oz of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the large skillet until just hot. Carefully lay the chicken down in the skillet, skin side down (if using bone in chicken), and cook until well-browned on the first side, about 4 minutes. Flip the chicken and continue to cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and take chicken out. Put chicken on a plate covered in foil. Keep warm.
- Return the skillet to medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, thyme and about 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, scraping bits off of the bottom of the skillet, until the onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes.
- Add the rice and continue to cook until the rice starts to soften and become translucent.
- Add the wine and broth and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken back to the pan. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook until chicken is done and no longer pink, about 15 minutes.
- Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm. Add the peas and stir the rice well, cover and continue to cook until the peas and rice are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Place chicken atop the rice and serve straight from the skillet.
Important Notes
Adapted from Cover and Bake: by America’s Test Kitchen
Want to see more one skillet dinner recipes?
Check out my recipe boards on Pinterest!
The images in this post were updated and the post was republished on May 19, 2016
