SODO: Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Well, as thouse who follow my twitter account already know, I have put the dutcho ovens away for the year.  However, shortly after I put them away, I pulled them out again.  Last Wednesday my daughter’s school held Parent Teacher Conference.  And to show our teacher appreciation for the extra long hours, our School Parent’s Organization provide dinner for the teachers on that day.

Last year my wife made a delicious Chicken Corn Chowder.  And this year, I thought that it would be a good excuse to use the Dutch Ovens one last time.  So, I pulled them out of storage.

For this recipe, I decided that we would try one of our families favorite oven recipes in the oven.  It’s pretty simple.

4 chicken breast halves
4 Tbsp of butter
1 Tbsp of basil
1 Package of Chicken Flavor Rice and Past Mix
2 Cups water
1 Medium Tomato (sliced)
1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown the chicken with in the butter.  Coat the chicken with Basil.

Saute the rice pasta mix in the the remaining fat until the pasta is brown.  Then add chicken and water.

Cook in 350 degree dutch oven until rice is tender (approx. 1 hour).  I recommend that more heat is on the bottom for this recipe.  Then add sliced tomatoes and shredded cheese to the top of mix until cheese is melted (approx. 5 minutes).

For this time cooking it we used Zatarans Chick Flavored rice for this recipe, and it tasted different than usual.  I think it was because the rice is different than the brand that we usually use (store brand).

Also, the chicken started out partly frozen, so it ended up being very dry.  However, it was delicious, and I can’t wait to try it in a dutch oven again, when I have a little more time.

SODO: The Late Independence Day Dinner

Like the dinner this post is a little late.

I had to work on Independence Day. Yep, I get July 5 off every year. However, the 4th is always a work day at my company.

But having to work wasn’t going to take away from my celebration. We were planning to do a Dutch Oven dinner on the 4th. But I ended up working late and not getting out of work in time to start a dutch oven meal.

So we went with something simple instead, and made plans to dutch oven on Saturday.

Those plans were pushed off too, because we realized almost too late, that we had a baptism for my niece that I needed to go to. So, again we find out selves without a nice dutch oven meal.

Finally, Sunday night we were able to fit in the preparation time and cooking time to do a dutch oven dinner. So, we started off with some Chicken Durango:

1 Medium Onion Chopped
1/4 cup of Butter
1 10oz can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 10oz can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 15oz can of Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes
8 pieces of Chicken

Sauté the the onions in the butter until tender.  Then add both soups and the tomatoes.  Add the chicken.  Let cook for 1 hour.

While you could serve this with tortillas, we went with rice.  It was very good.  The rice mixed with the sauce was good enough to be a meal on its own.

We finished out meal off with a cherry cobbler.  We used some of the cherries that we had just canned from our tree, and added a cake mix and and butter.  I think we used too many cherries, because it was just a little over the top.  But this was definitely a great meal.