Quick and Easy Curry Chicken and Rice

This is super easy Curry Chicken and Rice is truly a favorite, "go-to" recipe in our busy home!
I found this fabulously easy and oh, so yummy recipe in the cookbook put together by our local elementary school. Once I tried this fast, easy recipe, the whole family was hooked! I have found that the very best recipe books are put together by local school or church groups. They are ususally done as fundraisers, and people seem to really step up with their best family recipes...The best thing is that the recipes included in these local books seem to be the fast and easy, "real" food that "real" families eat. So many nationally produced cookbooks are full of fancy pictures and ingredient lists as long as my arm...they are interesting to look at, but does anybody really make that stuff? So as a general rule, whenever my local school or church group comes out with a new cookbook, I'm the first in line to buy one!

We are a big fan of chicken and rice dishes at our house, and it took me several years to learn the secret of making really good rice. I always used regular 'ol Uncle Bens or whatever rice I could find on sale. I love the fabulous, slightly sticky, moist, perfectly steamed rice from our local chinese restaurant, but never really gave a second thought as to whether I could make that kind of rice at home. I began to notice that whenever we had rice at my mother-in-laws house, her rice was the perfect, moist, steamed rice like the restaurants would serve. I finally asked her about it, and she taught me a secret that changed my rice cooking life forever!

If you want perfect, chinese restaurant style moist, "sticky" rice, Uncle Bens just won't cut it.

You need to buy Calrose rice, often found in the asian section of the grocery store. It is sometimes labeled as Jasmine rice. This is rice with the outer coating of starch left intact, which makes a wonderful, moist, slightly sticky rice perfect for serving with meals that contain a sauce of any kind. I serve "sticky" rice with all sorts of dishes: beef, chicken, pork...anything with a sauce, such as No Leftovers Curry Chicken, for example! You don't even need special equipment to get perfect rice every time. More on that in a bit.

I recently made this chicken recipe when I had a house full of people for one of my daughters birthday parties. As I took it out of the oven and walked through the kitchen to place it on the table, everyone I passed took a whiff of the deliciousness and commented "What is THAT?????? It lookes so good!" And of course, it WAS! Enjoy!



Super Easy, No Leftovers Curry Chicken
serves 6-8

6 uncooked chicken breasts, cut into 1" cubes
1 cup mayo (fat free works great. I often use regular but it's a little "heavy". )
1 c. parmesan cheese (I use the stuff in the can)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (I use less for the kids)
1/2 c. herb seasoned breadcrumbs
butter

Mix soup, mayo and curry powder. Pour over chicken in 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with cheese and top with breadcrumbs. Drizzle with melted butter. I often double the sauce so there will be extra to serve over the rice.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Perfect Easy Rice

I use my 4 qt. pyrex casserole dish with a lid for this. I just take 2 cups Calrose or Jasmine rice, and place in casserole dish. Add 3 cups water and place lid on dish. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 or until water is absorbed and rice is tender. This serves 6-8 people

The birth of the GIANT white binder.....plus our favorite Chicken Taquitos!

Hi There!  Finding easy recipes that my family will love is my passion! Over the years, my collection of "family tested, kid approved" recipes has grown to a GIANT white binder, overflowing with tried and true, "sure thing" recipes that I know I can count on to please.   I've been asked over and over to lend my binder out so people could make copies, and I've always had to say "no" because I just couldn't be without it that long (it would take FOREVER and cost a FORTUNE to copy the whole thing!) There's enough people that want recipes that I've decided to start sharing them!I can't wait to start sharing my families favorite easy recipes...as much as cooking is my passion, what I REALLY love is sharing a good thing!The reason I started putting the best recipes in a binder in the first place is because I really needed a place I could go when I was short on time, short on patience (or both), and easily find a recipe I knew would pass the "kid" test. This was especially important because I try new recipes several nights a week, and we all know unpredicatable new recipes are. So some nights we discovered a new "hit" and other nights were just plain McNasty. Every week, after a few nights of having to throw away a whole batch of whatever and having the kids end up eating cold cereal, I would get my fill of trying new things, and just needed to give my family something I knew they would love. This led to the "giant white binder".

Every time I found an easy recipe and it passed the kid test (and the husband test), I would put it in the binder. A recipe couldn't be just "okay", it had to be a "definately make again, requestable, no leftovers" kind of dish. I also had a few other requirements:

1) NO KETCHUP allowed (and no growling): Often times, when faced with some unidentifiable dish, instead of saying "this is scary", my husband would quietly get up from the table and come back with the giant Industrial sized bottle of  ketchup, and drench the whole darn thing. I fairly quickly learned that this was code for: if I have to eat this ever again my head will explode. Occasionally, if a new recipe yielded particularly bad results, my husband would just growl at it. yes, sad I know. (The growling may or may not have been followed by a trip to fetch the ketchup bottle.) Needless to say, if a recipe was eaten with ketchup, or growled at, It was not binder worthy.

2)The leftover test: When deciding if a recipe was worth saving, I looked for dishes that either had no leftovers, or the leftovers were just as good when re-served. Occasionally something was really good the first night, but I ended up having to throw the leftovers away. If that was the case, I didn't save the recipe.

Even within the binder, I have a rating system where I mark the REALLY, REALLY good recipes with a foil star. I also mark the best recipes in other cookbooks I use with a foil star. So now I know that ANY recipe in my binder is a "safe bet" for my family, and when looking through other cookbooks I know at a glance which recipes are already "family tested, kid approved."

So that's why I started "the giant white binder", and why I think you should start one too. Every busy mom should have a go-to place to find sure-thing recipes that have already passed the "family" test.

So, on to this week's recipe!

 

This week's recipe is a definate kid pleaser, and adults love it too. I have to serve dinner for 26 people this weekend, and when I was deciding what to serve, this was at the top of the list. Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Taquitos
From Machelle Littlefield

makes approx. 10-12 taquitos

6 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup green salsa
1 tbs lime juice
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
3 tbs chopped cilantro
2 tbs chopped green onions
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken*
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese *
6-inch corn or flour tortillas (we like flour best!)
Nonstick cooking spray
Kosher salt

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it lightly with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave 20-30 sec. so it's soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro, green onions, chicken and pepper jack cheese.

Place 1/4-1/2 c.  of the chicken mixture on the lower third of each tortilla, keeping to about half inch from the edges, and then roll up. If you are using corn tortillas, warm a few in the microwave between wet paper towels, until soft and pliable. Place seam-side down on the baking sheet in a single layer. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray. Sprinkle tops with a pinch of kosher salt. Place pan in the oven and bake for 15-20 min or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown. Cool 5 min and then serve with sour cream, salsa, guacamole or pico de gallo.

Left Overs : Put left overs in a Ziploc and store in the fridge up to a week. Reheat by placing them on a baking sheet and cook for 10 min at 400.

Freezer Instructions: Place unbaked taquitos in a single layer of a baking sheet and place in the freezer for  2 hours or until frozen enough to hold their shape. Pack in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. To bake, follow the same instructions, thaw or extend the baking time by 10 min.

*I have also used regular jack cheese and added a can of diced green chili's (stick blended of course, so the kids don't have a heart attack over the green chunks)

* I have used both canned and fresh chicken for this. The easiest is to throw frozen chicken into the crockpot in the morning, fresh from the freezer. By dinnertime, it shreds nicely and is ready to be mixed with the rest of the filling!

Have a perfectly wonderful day!
Machelle