Preheat oven to 350 degrees
leftover chicken, 1-2 cups
1 cup rice
chicken tettrazzini sauce
parmesan cheese
Okay, this is essentially the same recipe as Chicken Tettrazzini except you use rice instead of pasta.
Cook your rice - 1 cup uncooked rice plus 2 cups of water with a tablespoon of butter = 2 cups of cooked rice.
Chop up leftover chicken or just boil a chicken breast and chop it up.
Make the sauce for chicken tettrazini with these proportions:
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
melt butter and add flour and cook for a few minutes.
Add:
1 cup of water with 2 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in it.
1 cup of milk.
Heat until it gets only a bit thick.
In a square pan, 8 x 8 metal/glass pan, put cooked rice, chicken and sauce. Stir all around. Salt and pepper generously. Top with parmesan cheese.
Cook at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. You want the parmesan cheese to be golden and for all the liquid to have pretty much been absorbed.
This is a bland comfort food recipe. You can add variations just like with the tettrazzini--add mushrooms or peas.
Preheat to 425 degrees
whole chicken
rosemary (fresh or dried)
whole lemon
salt and pepper
sherry*
potatoes
carrots
onions (baby onions or regular)
butter
This recipe calls for the use of a stand to put your chicken on, so that the chicken cooks essentially standing up. That is where the name "Skinny Chicken" comes from, because the chicken looks skinny standing up like that. If you don't have one of these metal stands, it is possible to use a beer can or bottle to stand up the chicken, but I've never done it in this way.
Take out any giblets etc. from inside the chicken and discard them.
Rinse chicken. Place it on the stand so that the breasts are at the top.
Set it inside a roasting pan. You can use a 9 X 11 or larger pan for this--you want enough room for your potatoes and carrots to fit around the chicken.
Take 1/2 of the lemon and squeeze all over the chicken.
Then put that 1/2 lemon inside the chicken.
Cut up potatoes and carrots.
Don't make carrot and potato pieces too big or they won't cook through.
Peel baby onions, or if using regular sized onions, peel and chop.
Place all veggies into roasting pan around the chicken on the stand.
Rub chicken with butter. Don't play around with the chicken even if you are tempted. Pat rosemary all over the chicken. Place a bit of rosemary inside the chicken. You can slide some rosemary under the skin of the chicken.
Squeeze other 1/2 of lemon over the veggies.
Salt and pepper everything.
Pour 1/2 cup of sherry* over the veggies. (Its best to use real sherry and not cooking sherry because cooking sherry has tons of sodium in it.)
Add water to the veggies until they are almost covered.
You'll probably need to remove a rack from your oven to give the chicken enough room to stand up in the pan.
Cook for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
Then lower temperature to 375 degrees and cook for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is done. While chicken is cooking, baste it at 15 minute intervals with juices from the pan. This doesn't necessarily make it moister, but it looks nicer when done. If it starts getting too brown, put foil on it.
When you take it out of the oven, let the chicken rest a bit before serving, 10 minutes or so. This will keep the juices in and chicken won't dry out. While waiting, remove veggies from pan and put in serving dish. If you have any juices left in pan you can make a little gravy or pour them over the veggies.
Take chicken off stand and carve. Brianna recommends using the Martha Stewart carving method for best results with chicken (or turkey).
*Sherry is somewhat optional. I have made this without the sherry because I ran out of it, and the chicken and veggies were still good. But the sherry adds a nice flavor, so use sherry if you can.
2 small chicken breasts or 1-1/2 cup chopped chicken
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
3 T. butter
3 T. flour
8 oz. thin spaghetti
parmesan cheese
This recipe can be made in a variety of ways. Here's how I make it, then I'll tell you some of the variations. This version is pretty bland, but is a great comfort food.
Usually I use 1 or 2 boneless chicken breasts and just boil them. You could use leftover chicken. Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces. Salt and pepper them. Set aside.
Cook 8 oz. of thin spaghetti--I use angel hair pasta. Cook to al dente, don't overcook. Set aside.
For the chicken broth you can use canned broth, but I use 2 chicken bouillion cubes, dissolved in the 2 cups of water in the microwave--sometimes I use 3 bouillion cubes but in same amount of water, 2 cups, to add more flavor.
On the stove in a heavy saucepan, melt 3 T. of butter. Add 3 T. flour to it. Let this cook for a few minutes. If you aren't using a teflon pan, just keep stirring it for a few minutes. You cook it at this point to get rid of the flour taste.
Then add your chicken broth and 1 cup of milk. Use a wire whisk to stir it up so you don't get lumps.
Let it come almost to a boil, or to a boil*--you will see it get a little bit thick.
Now you put it all together. I always use my glass rectangular baking dish which I thought was 9 X 11, however when I measured this pan it measures 7 1/2 X 11. But if you have 9 X 11 it will work fine.
Put the pasta in--you can cut up the pasta a bit if you want. Salt and pepper the pasta.
Put the chicken on the pasta.
Pour the chicken broth/milk sauce you just made over all of it.
Stir it around so all is evenly dispersed.
Top with loads of parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees, until its lightly browned on top or until everything is bubbly.
*Some people say you should add the chicken broth, bring it to a boil for a minute or two and then add the milk and remove from heat. I don't bother with that, I just dump in the broth and the milk, whisk it, let it heat until it is almost boiling and is starting to thicken. Then I remove it and pour into the pasta.
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Variations:
Saute some sliced mushrooms in butter, add some sherry to them, with a touch of nutmeg. After you have poured in the cream sauce and stirred it all around with the chicken and pasta, sprinke the mushrooms over the top. Then top with parmesan.
Top with some other kind of cheese. I've used cheddar and monterey jack.
Some people add black olives to this dish, or pimentos.
You can add some poultry seasoning to the cream sauce.
You could add some frozen peas to this dish also.
You can adjust the amounts of ingredients:
Add more chicken.
Or
Use 2 bouillion cubes and 1 1/2 cups water and 1 1/2 cups milk.
And
Obviously just increase everything if you want a bigger amount.