Rockin' Moroccan Chicken

We've been eating this dish for over a year, and we all love it.  It is served over rice (check out my favorite recipe for rice here).  I like spooning extra liquid over my rice, yum, and my not-very-saucy husband likes to eat it as dry as possible.   I love the simplicity of this recipe--it tastes like I worked a lot harder than I did! 

Preheat: 400*
Category: Chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, raisins, main dish

2 Chicken breast halves, cut into 1" pieces
1 Sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1" pieces  (I LOVE sweet potato with this dish, but don't always have them on hand.  I like to add to and/or replace the sweet potato with regular potato chunks)
1/4 Cup Raisins (I HATE raisins in baked goods.  But raisins in this dish is surprisingly spectacular!)
1 Cup Vegetable stock (It's all about what you have and don't have.  The vegetable stock is good, flavorful and full of vitamins.  But today, I used chicken broth instead, and it's a delicious substitute.)
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Ginger
1 teaspoon Tumeric
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 teaspoon Salt

1.  Place chicken pieces into baking dish.  I use my wonderful covered baker from Pampered Chef, but a 9x13 pan and foil will do just fine.

2.  Measure out and stir in all spices.  It is VERY important that you stir in spices before adding in the sweet potatoes or raisins.

3.  Measure out, then stir in the raisins, sweet potato chunks and vegetable stock.

4.  Cover dish and bake at 400* for one hour.  Stir at 20 and 40 minutes.  The second you put your baking dish into the oven is a great time to hurry and measure out and steam your rice!  Your rice will cook in about 15 minutes or so (depending on your method) and then the remaining time, it will cool very slightly, absorbing any remaining moisture, making it perfect and read at the same time as your chicken!

Rice

Yes, that's the whole title.  I had a rice maker for maybe a couple of months and the rice turned out AWFUL, and the pot was a terror to clean.  It didn't stay at our house for long, and I continued making yummy rice using a pot with a fitted lid.  Here's how we make our rice--works 100% of the time (unless I forget that I'm making rice and it burns, but we won't talk about that!)

The rice is shown here with one of our favorite chicken dishes, Rockin' Moroccan Chicken.

Preheat: --
Category: Rice

2 cups Water
1 cup Rice
1 teaspoon Butter
1 teaspoon Salt

Optional:
Instead of plain water, use chicken broth instead for a flavorful rice.

Directions
1.  Throw water, rice, butter, and salt into a pot or saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid.  To cook the rice faster, I'll give the mixture a quick stir and turn the heat onto high.  When it starts boiling, I turn the heat down to about a seven, or a medium-high heat.  You know you have the right amount of heat based on how much steam is escaping from the lid...  If you are BILLOWING steam, turn your heat down.  If you can't see ANY steam, turn it up.  You should get a small and steady stream of steam.

2.  Cook until "pock marks" form in the rice.  I have a clear lid...  you DON'T want to remove the lid because it defeats the whole purpose of having steam built up.  To make sure all of the water has absorbed, I tilt the pot to its side. If any liquid is visible, I know the rice needs another couple of minutes and I let it rest.

3.  Serve hot.  Sometimes when the weather is wet (and I live in Snellville, which is in humid Atlanta, so of COURSE it's wet!), I'll just move the cooked rice off of the burner and let it set for 20 minutes while I finish other meal preparation.  The rice retains its heat, and it finishes absorbing any extra heat to make a really nice sticky rice.

Arroz con Pollo

My mom and I thought this was fantastic!  It's flavorful and satisfying.  My HUSBAND, who doesn't like "saucy" rice, and my kids, who don't like... well, anything with vegetables and adult flavors... didn't eat hardly any of it.  I'm posting it here for the grown-ups who love flavor. :D

p.s.  This is a fantastic way to use leftover rice. :)

Arroz con Pollo

Preheat: --
Category: Mexican, comfort food, rice, chicken

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1/2" strips (I used the chicken breast I had in my freezer)
3 Tablespoon oil (I used olive oil--yum)
1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered (I bought mine pre-sliced and used what I had left in the package)
1 medium onion, diced (I used a whole large yellow onion--I subbed some things instead of using premade salsa)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used four cloves, another sub for salsa)
2 cups salsa (In addition to the onion and garlic, I added a large can of diced tomatoes and minced some seeded jalapeno.  The seeds could have been left in, but I took out the heat for my kids.  If I made this again, I'd use TWO jalapenos, seeding one.  Oh!  I added some course-ground salt to this step, just shy of a teaspoon)
1 cup monterrey jack, shredded
1-2 cups chicken broth
2 cups cooked rice
salt + pepper
parsley or cilantro, for color (I used some dried cilantro; perfect in a pinch)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 t. ground cayenne (unnecessary with the heat of the salsa/jalapenos)

1) Sauté the mushrooms, onion and garlic.  Oh, and I sautéed the jalapeno, too.

2) Add chicken, browning on all sides.  The recipe directions weren't very practical with the amount of sautéed vegetables in my skillet, so I settled for partially cooked.

3) Add salsa, rice.  Cook for about two minutes.  I went ahead and added in my spices at this stage.  Why not!  The cilantro needed time to freshen up.

4) Add broth.  I just used one cup of broth and it was still pretty soupy--I had to simmer down the liquid for a good 10 minutes.

5) Turn off heat and add cheese.  Mix in spices.

6)  Top with parsley and/or cilantro.  Serve hot.  We served this with broccoli, corn and peas.  :)