I think almost anyone loves chicken and rice every once in a while. It’s one of those easy to go to dishes, a comfortable favorite. And, kids usually like stuff like this. It’s actually been a while since I have made it but when I was organizing my recipe file recently, I set it aside. It’s incredibly easy, cheesy, and filling!
Today’s Eco-Tip is from The Green Book: If you’re broiling, roasting, or baking a dish that will cook for an hour or more, don’t bother preheating your oven. Even for breads and cakes, never preheat for longer than ten minutes. If you reduce the amount of time your oven is on by one hour per year, you’ll save an average of two kilowatt-hours of energy. If 30 percent of U.S. households could each reduce total oven preheating time by just one hour per year, the sixty million kilowatt-hours of energy saved could bake a dozen cookies for every American.
I practiced this with this dish! I did not preheat my oven and this turned out just fine.
Ingredients:
- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 3/4 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 4 – 6)
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Mix soup, water, rice, onion powder, and black pepper in 2-quart shallow baking dish. Top with chicken. Sprinkle chicken with additional pepper.
Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and the rice is done.
Uncover and sprinkle cheese over chicken. I sometimes put it back in the oven, uncovered, just for a couple more minutes until the cheese is well melted.
Another option, if you so desire, is to stir in about 2 cups of fresh vegetables into the soup mixture before adding the chicken. That, of course, is up to personal preference!
