Found this recipe a few weeks ago, and it seemed to me the perfect lazy Sunday comfort food dish. Original name is "Chicken and brown rice casserole", but seems to me you can chuck most anything in there and you would still have a really enjoyable and filling dish.
Modified the recipe a bit since we had pork roast leftovers and mushrooms lying about, and what better purpose than feeding four hungry, slightly hung over, lazy flat dwellers on a cold March day.
Ingredients (serves 4-6 people)
2.5-3 dl boiled brown rice
2-3 tbsp butter
2 tbp vegetable oil
500 gr boneless chicken thighs
150 gr of some other meat
1 dl flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp Chinese five spice
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, sliced
2 romano peppers, diced
200 gr oyster mushrooms, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 dl green olives, roughly chopped
100 gr grated cheese
2-3 dl vegetable stock
The "other meat" part is optional, but it added some extra feel to it with the left over pork meat diced and fried with the chicken.
Method
Wash the rice and put it to boil according to the instructions on the packet. Add one of the tbsp of butter and a tsp of salt to the water before adding the rice. For this amount of rice I would use just under twice as much water and simmer the rice for 30-35 minutes or until the water is gone. When done, set aside.
While the rice is boiling, chop up all the vegetables. Keep them separate as they go in at different times.
Trim the thighs from excess fat and cut them in bite size pieces. Boneless chicken thighs is without a doubt the most succulent chicken meat you can get, it will just melt in your mouth. Mix the flour with 1 tsp of salt and the black pepper, then turn the chicken meat in the mix until completely covered.
Start your oven and set to 180 degress Celsius.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan (all ingredients are mixed in here until transferred to a casserole dish), fry the chicken for a few minutes on all sides until golden brown. You don't need to cook them all the way through at this stage, just get them golden and crispy. Flavor them with the smoked paprika. If you use any other meat, add it in and fry it here as well. Put the meat aside when done.
Melt some of the butter in the same pan and fry the mushrooms. Set aside with the chicken.
Some more butter in the pan, saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic, cumin, ginger and a tsp of salt. Fry for a minute more mixing thoroughly. Add in the carrots, romano pepper and stock, bring to a boil and simmer for about five minutes until the vegetables soften.
Mix back in the meat and the mushrooms, and the rice. Also add half of the grated cheese and the olives. Turn off the heat and gently stir it all through.
Transfer mixture to a buttered casserole dish and sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top. Cover with aluminum foil and put in the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove foil cover and gratinate for a further 15 minutes.
Serve piping hot with a simple green salad and some sliced cherry tomatoes.
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