Chicken and Rice Recipes!

[greenbeanmama]

So, due to gall bladder issues, my husband's dinners have consisted of three things lately: baked potatoes, chicken noodle soup, or chicken and rice. He wants variety, but I'm not a very good cook when it comes to improvising. I think the chicken and rice dish would be the easiest to modify to make it more interesting. Any good chicken and rice recipes that you're willing to share?

[Arduinna]

Get a good Indian cookbook. I highly recommend 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra. There are a ton of rice recipes and chicken recipes in there so you can mix and match rice dishes with chicken curries in endless variety and have something different every night. 

[umsami]

Can you do baked sweet potatoes as well as regular potatoes? Don't forget fingerlings and all of the other fun potatoes at the store.  One of my favorites is to use little red potatoes and roast them with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice.

For chicken soup, we make a Middle Eastern version whenever we have chicken.  First, poach (boil) your chicken or chicken parts.  You can still put them into the oven in a normal recipe, and they will be super juicy.  I usually add the chicken or chicken parts, an onion quartered (skin on), a few carrots, and some celery if I have it.  I'll also add a chicken bouilion cube.  Once your chicken is cooked (about 20-40 minutes)... you can also do this in a pressure cooker... take it out, and drain the broth.  Bring it to boil, add a chicken bouillion cube if needed for more chicken flavor, and then add orzo pasta and cook the pasta.  Then add salt, pepper, and (secret) either some cardamom pods or ground cardamom.  Take it off the heat and squeeze in some lemon.  Delicious. :)   

There's a total carb fest Egyptian dish called chicken in the oven, basically.  After boiling your chicken, you want to boil 4-5 potatoes in the stock... sliced into 1/2 inch thick rounds.  Then in a pyrex baking dish, put the cooked potatoes on the bottom, and chicken pieces on the top.  Sprinkle chicken with kosher salt and pepper.  On top of the chicken, you want to pour a tomato/garlic/vinegar sauce.  To make, sautee a lot of garlic (for us, usually 7-8 cloves) in olive oil.  Add in a 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce, salt, and pepper, and a few ladel fulls of the chicken stock that was used with the potatoes. Also add about 1/4 cup of white vinegar. (Makes it tangy... if you're not sure if you'll like it, start with 2-3 tablespoons.)  Bring to a boil and then pour over the chicken and potatoes in the pan.  Add more stock so that the sauce covers the potatoes and then put it in the oven for about 30-45 minutes at 375 until browned.  Once it's done, it's served over rice for a total carb fest... but you can eat it plain as well...although I have to say, the rice with the potatoes and chicken and sauce is totally yummy.