Easy chicken and rice dinner

Seriously, it's easy. I'm a big fan of easy. I'm also a big fan of dry vegetable soup mix, apparently, since I'm using it in everything lately.

Boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders (any kind of boneless chicken will do, but you can't use big pieces like whole breasts. If you have large pieces, cut them to be smaller so they'll cook faster.)
1 cup white rice
3 cups water
1 package dry vegetable soup mix

Brown the chicken slightly in a little bit of oil. Nothing too major. If you over-brown, that's ok. Or if you forget to brown it, that's ok too. Whatever. Either way, use a really big skillet so you'll have room for everything (I used my 12-inch cast iron and it was just big enough). Then pour in your water and the veggie soup mix, and stir it to dissolve the powder and get everything evened out. Dump in your rice, and try to spread it evenly around the skillet. Make sure there's no rice hanging out on top of the chicken where it won't be in the water. Bring the water to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the rice is done and the chicken is cooked through.

This recipe serves 4, or maybe 5 depending on how much chicken you have and what sides you serve with it. I didn't serve any sides and it served the 4 of us with a few leftovers. As with my other chicken recipe, this would be great if you cut the chicken into small bite-size pieces, but I didn't and it was still good. I'm sure you could also bake this, but I have no idea how long you'd need to bake it, so if you go that route you're on your own.

Osso Buco with fennel, and orange gremolata



Ingredients

1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 fennel bulb, cut into large pieces
3 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch/2.5 cm pieces
4 pork shanks
19 oz/ 540 ml tin of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp/30 ml olive oil
2 tbsp/30 ml flour
1/2 cup/125 ml white wine
juice of 1 orange
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Gremolata

1/2 cup/125 ml fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp/ 15 ml orange zest, finely grated
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced


Method

1. Add oil to a skillet and brown onion for 2 mins. Add pork shanks and brown on all sides. Sprinkle with flour and cook for a further min

2. Deglaze with wine and orange juice and bring to the boil.

3. Place pork and onion mixture in crockpot and add tomatoes, celery, fennel and thyme.Season to taste.

4. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.

5. Make gremolata just before serving by combining parsley, orange and garlic.

6. Serve over pasta or rice with gremolata sprinkled over top

Oven

1. Heat oven to 350F/ 180C. Place pork and onion mixture in baking dish with tomatoes, fennel, celery and thyme. Plus an extra 3/4 cup/175 ml white wine. Season to taste.

2. Cover and bake for 4-5 hours. Stir occasionally adjusting liquid level if necessary.

3. Prepare gremolata as above. And serve over pasta or rice