1/24 He That Can Not Cook Chicken Cooks Rice

The Recipes: Cheesy Rice & Corn Casserole and Baked Dijon Chicken
Casserole for 8 1/2 servings

• 1/2 cup Chive and Onion Cream Cheese Spread
• 1 egg
• 2 cups cooked instant brown rice
• 1 can (15 oz) corn with red and green bell peppers, drained
• 1 cup Mexican Style shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF
2. Mix cream cheese spread and egg in large bowl until well blended. Stir in rice, corn 3/4 cup shredded cheese.
3. Pour into greased 1 1/2-qt casserole; top with remaining shredded cheese. If you're me, add a few shakes more from the bag.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted.

Chicken for 4 servings

• 1/4 C. milk
• 3-4 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 C Plain, dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 C (.75 oz) Refrigerated shredded parmesan cheese
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• Nonstick cooking spray or vegetable oil or Crisco...whatever you use to grease a pan. 

1. Preheat oven to 475ºF. Spray/wipe 9x13-inch baking dish with the choice from the last bullet (cooking spray works the best, FYI).
2. Combine milk and mustard in a shallow bowl (we used a salad bowl). Combine bread crumbs and cheese in a separate bowl.
3. Dip chicken into milk mixture, coating both sides, then into bread crumb mixture. Place in prepared dish.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and no longer pink the center.

The Process:

Well, first of all, if you want to make them both at the same time? Turn the oven to 425ºF and book 'em both for 20 minutes. 

To make sure the chicken gets done, you can microwave it before. Ours was totally frozen, and we microwaved it for 10-ish minutes on a defrost setting. It wasn't pink when we were done. I didn't make the chicken dish, so I can't really tell you how it turned out. The only thing I know is SEPARATE RAW CHICKEN BREASTS BEFORE FREEZING THEM. Prep time took about 20 minutes extra before they were frozen together.

Oh, and because I can't cook. What I've learned from my first time cooking follows.

A. "Instant" rice is not instant. It must be cooked in water. How much water is actually important is you don't want to be looking at something resembling white dirt. 

A-2. Brown rice doesn't really look brown. At least, not when I cooked it, but that might be because I failed! Also, if you aren't careful and think 'simmer' means turn the stove down 2 notches, it might boil over. Which makes a mess. Which you should clean up, or your stove will reek of burnt food whenever you turn it on. That's a mess.

A-3. If you use a whole box (14 oz) of instant rice and the can of corn we found (11 oz) [no, neither of those are the right size, but that's fine], you'll need to add some extra corn, maybe a bit more seasoning (and always more cheese).

The Result:

Oh gawd, delicious. I'm a dipping aficionado, and even I didn't need any ketchup or ranch or BBQ sauce for this chicken. It was perfecto. Thumbs up for Sister-dearest, even if it did take 3 times longer than it was supposed to be.

As for the rice dish, despite that fact it was put in my charge, it was actually edible. And by edible, I mean actually delicious. The sprinkling of cheese on the top really made it the best. It gave it...not a crunch, but made it better than super soft, which the rice was because of my intense failure at cooking. I thought it needed a bit more spices, but it was delicious despite that. 

All I can say is this was a fun first venture, and it will be fun to continue the journey. Happy Monday!