Instant Pot Garlic Parmesan Chicken and Rice

Instant Pot Garlic Parmesan Chicken and Rice

Behold the cheesy, creamy goodness.

So buried somewhere in this link is the following recipe. It is painful and time consuming to find on their side. So without further ado:

Resources:
1.5 lbs chicken breast, boneless, skinless
1 tbsp butter
2 1/2 cups water
2 cups heavy cream
10.5 oz cream of chicken condensed soup
2 cups white rice
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cups Parmesan cheese, shredded
2 tsp parsley flakes

Method:
Cut chicken breast into strips.

Turn Instant Pot on to Sauté Normal. Add butter to the pot while it's heating up. Add the chicken breast slices to the pot and cook until almost no pink remains.

Add the water, heavy cream and cream of chicken soup to the pot and stir gently. Add the rice, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to the pot. Do not stir.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot, lock it in place and turn the steam release handle to the sealing position. Pressure Cook on High for 5 minutes*.

Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, immediately turn the steam release handle to do a quick release. Once the float valve is all the way down remove the lid.

Add the shredded Parmesan and parsley flakes to the pot. Stir well until the cheese is all melted. Cover until rice is done.

Commentary:
I only made minor modifications. If you are curious dig through the original link... and drown in the excessive that is food blogging for profit.

* - Seriously though, the rice was under cooked. I added the cover until rice is done line. Next time, I plan on adding a minute or two of cook time.

Aside: I always wonder if I will ever get a cease and desist letter. Can you own a recipe? How much do I have to change to not get in trouble. I barely touch the recipe I post

Conclusion:
I would not like to see a calorie count, but everyone loved it.

Jack-O'-Lantern Stuffed Peppers / Stuffed Skulls

I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

I started tracking the "Halloween appropriate" movies I would watch every October with the goal of a thirty-one in thirty-one days. It combined my love of Halloween, movies, and data.

Guess which year kiddo number one was born!

I have come to accept this is a lost hobby for the next several years. So I am trying to get my Halloween thrills in other ways.

The next best thing to a Texas Chainsaw Massacre marathon?

Jack-O'-Lantern Stuffed Peppers (original recipe)

Resources:
4 orange bell peppers
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoon chili powder
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup cooked white rice
1 cup chicken stock, divided
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Cut off and reserve the top of each pepper. Remove and discard the cores and seeds. Carve a Jack O'Lantern face into each pepper. Drizzle the inside of each pepper with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place the peppers upright in a large baking dish along with the pepper tops.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet. Sauté onions until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add beef and sauté until browned and cooked through, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon. Drain the fat.

Return skillet to stovetop. Reduce heat a little. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the chili powder. Add the fire-roasted tomatoes, 1/2 cup chicken stock, cooked rice and 3/4 cup of cheese. Stir until the mixture is evenly combined. Remove from heat.

Divide rice and beef mixture between the hollowed out peppers. Top with remaining cheese.

Pour remaining 1/2 cup chicken stock into pan. Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the cheese is melted.

Round two.

Stuffed Skulls (original recipe)

Resources:
1 cup shredded pizza cheese blend
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/2 teaspoon oregano
8 oz cream cheese
one medium chicken breast, cooked, cubed
1 teaspoon minced dried onion

1 tube pizza dough (14ish ounces I think)

Method:

Mix the pizza cheese, pizza sauce, and oregano in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the cream cheese, chicken, and onion. 

Spray your skull pan with cooking spray.

Roll out the pizza dough and roll flat and thin. Cut into six equal rectangles.

Evil baking. I dig it.

Commentary:

The jack o' lanterns are great but just any old stuffed pepper at the end of the day.

The skulls were ok. My son and I liked the cream cheese skulls more. My wife liked the pizza skulls better. Naturally you can put just about anything in them.

Skull pans are hard to come by outside of Halloween time stock up appropriately!

The only challenge is getting the dough even. About half came out perfect. The rest leaked or had big dough sides.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, both will be made again. 

Also the wifey said, no stuffed peppers without face EVER. Yes dear.

Cheesy Swedish Meatball Bake

So let us get this out of the way: FUCK Tastemade. A fb page (who I shall not mention for fear of associated them with these schmucks) reposted their video. And thus began a journey...

A blurry journey apparently.

The still before the video looked tasty, so I watched the video. It looked really good (the word Gruyère always gets me excited even if I cannot pronounce it) but no specifics. No link to the recipe either. No comments with the recipe. Nothing.

Now depending on the day's solar flare activity, the relative humidity in Johannesburg, and the frequency of the letter "L" in headlines that day, it is about 50/50 if I would have walked away or continued. That day there was just enough "L"s to continue. I posted for help. I tried their fb page and I could not find the original post. I tried their webpage. It just wanted me to install some app, which is a pet peeve of mine so no. A few hours later somebody replied with this mess "Type the recipe name in the fb search bar. It'll give you a couple recipes. One of them says full recipe. Click on it and the video comes up, but, on the right is a link to the recipe." I tried to follow these instructions, I really did because at this point I was commited. Anyway a few more hours pass by and someone replies with a link. I click the link and low and behold it is the same DAMN VIDEO but on their website instead of fb!!! I was about to give up and luckily I noticed a print button just below the video. I clicked on that and I PDF'ed the recipe. Which brings us to today.

Resources:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups egg noodles, cooked
1/2 cup Gruyère cheese, shredded

6 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups beef broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt to taste

Method:
In a large bowl, combine ground meats, panko, eggs, melted butter and
seasonings. Roll mixture into balls.

In a skillet on medium-high heat, cook meatballs in olive oil, until browned on all
sides. Transfer to a paper towel-lined tray and set aside.

Prepare the gravy. In the same skillet, melt butter and whisk in the flour until
lightly browned. Slowly pour in the beef broth while whisking continuously. Keep
whisking and cooking until slightly thickened. Stir in the heavy cream and season
with salt and pepper.

Place meatballs in the gravy and simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes.

Cook egg noodles to al dente and drain. In a baking dish, mix noodles together
with meatballs and gravy. Sprinkle with shredded Gruyère cheese.

Bake at 375 degrees F until slightly golden and bubbling. 

Commentary:
I refuse to link to these jakovasaurs. I cited my source, that is all they get.

And Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head went to pieces when I asked him to help! 

I fried the meat in two batches because it was a lot a meat.

Scalding but tasty

I made one radical change: ground turkey was supposed to be ground pork. I have no regrets. The turkey made the meatballs "lighter" than I think pork would have. I think it was a really pleasant change and would probably stick with it in future go.

A few things I would change in the future. This needs more egg noodles and cheese. I would go as far as to say double both.I used a 9x13 pan. I would use something smaller next time. The cheese kind of disappeared due to the large surface area.

The leftovers kept really well. This could easily be a meal prep Sunday kind of recipe.

Conclusion:
I get it, we all have to get paid. Seriously though, fuck Tastemade and anyone else who "posts" recipes and then make you jump through this shit. If your business model involves making my life more difficult: I hate you, your children, your children's children, their pet dog, your favorite holiday, and the color of the shirt you were wearing the day you made the post.

But the meatballs were pretty good... but not great.

Buffalo Chicken (Optional) Soup

2017-03-08 Edit: derpy, derpy, derp. This is a repeat of this blog entry with the discussion of optional chicken added. 

To meat or not to meat: that is the question!

There is something unnatural about making anything "Buffalo" vegetarian in my humble opinion. Buffalo chicken wings, Buffalo CHICKEN dip, Buffalo CHICKEN soup, etc. The words Buffalo and chicken just belong together. Anything else is an unholy abomination!

While I am at it, you know what else is unnatural: Velveeta "cheese product". Velveeta happens to be a key ingredient to this recipe so let us get unnatural together!

Anyway today's story goes like this: the wifey was having a bunch of new hires over. She does not know of any food restrictions but thought there might be a vegetarian in the mix. (Aside: LIES! There was not.) She asked that I be accommodating to vegetarian. Now as opinionated as I am about food, Doctor Who, or the terrible state of modern driving, I always try to accommodate reasonable food restrictions. So I decided to give my beloved Buffalo CHICKEN soup recipe the vegetarian once over. The original recipe (ok the original, original recipe is linked here) is list below, with the minor vegetarian changes noted in parentheses.

Resouces:
2 bunches green onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1⁄4 cup butter
1⁄4 cup flour
3⁄4 cup milk
3⁄4 cup chicken broth (vegetable broth)
2 cups diced cooked chicken (neglected for vegetarian)
1⁄2 cup Frank's RedHot
4 ounces Velveeta cheese
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne
1⁄2 teaspoon celery salt
1⁄2 teaspoon garlic salt

Method:
Sauté (medium to medium-low heat) the green onions and celery in the butter until the celery is tender.

Stir in flour until smooth and slightly golden.

Slowly add milk and broth. Stopping to mix thoroughly as you go.

Add remaining ingredients. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until cheese has melted and well mixed.

Commentary:
"Come on baby, just the tip?" Er I meant to say just not the tip. I used the whole green onions except the rooty tip.

This quantity of Frank's and cayenne makes for a pretty spicy soup. I recommend reducing the Frank's down to 1/3 cup to reduce the heat if desired. That said, it a critical flavor component. Without Frank's this is not the same soup. So if you want something with no heat, move along.

The celery adds some crunch to this recipe. Based on your tastes that could be a good or a bad thing. Respond according. By which I mean add/reduce, chop bigger/smaller pieces of celery, etc to your taste, not send me your pro-celery socialist propaganda.

Just for my own curosity I just Googled "pro-celery socialist propaganda". Sadly it was entirely less interesting than I had hoped. Anyone out there a graphic artist who wants to work me up a new logo? I cannot pay you, but it would be great exposure. <wink, wink>

I have tweeked this one way or the other plenty of times: add some garlic instead of the garlic salt, more or less celery, more or less chicken, etc. It is a pretty forgiving recipe and can easily be modified to personal taste.

I always buy the big block of Velveeta. DO NOT DO THAT. I think it is two pounds or something. 

By the way, this freezes well. Make a double batch. No: octuple since you bought the big block after I told you not to!

Conclusion:
The original recipe is amazing and I love it. ♥♥ <obligatory Doctor Who nod>

The vegetarian modification... did not taste any different. Let's face it when you have that much Velveeta and Frank's a bit of chicken is not going to sway the taste one way or the other.

Creamy Corn Pasta With Basil

CORN! But more about that later.

So with the new house, I planted some cilantro and some basil. No real plan honestly. It just sounded like a good idea at the time. We had grown cilantro at the last place and I figured I should expand. The problem is I did not have any recipes in mind for the copious amounts of basil. 

So the obvious answer is pesto. Great fine. I should make pesto. But I am a non-conformist at heart, so fuck your pesto. Instead I made this!

Mind you, I am a practical non-conformist. This used a tiny amount of basil compared to what I have. So I should probably still make pesto...

Resources:
Sea salt
12 ounces dry pasta (the original recipe called for orecchiette or farfalle, I used rotini)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 bunch scallions (about 8), trimmed and thinly sliced (keep the whites and greens separate)
2 cups CORN kernals (about 3 large ears shucked)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus lots more for garnish
1/3 cup finely torn basil
1 chicken breast fully cooked and diced
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until 1 minute shy of al dente. Drain, reserving about a 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Heat oil in large pot over medium heat; add scallion whites and a pinch of salt and cook until soft, 3 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water and all but 1/4 cup CORN; simmer until CORN is heated through and almost tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, transfer to a blender, and purée mixture until smooth, adding a little extra water if needed to get a thick but pourable texture.

Heat the pan over high heat. Add butter and let melt. Add reserved 1/4 cup CORN and cook until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. (It’s O.K. if the butter browns, that deepens the flavor.) Add the CORN purée and cook for 30 seconds to heat and combine the flavors.

Reduce heat to medium. Add pasta and 1/4 cup the reserved pasta cooking water, tossing to coat. Cook for 1 minute, then add a little more of the pasta cooking water if the mixture seems too thick. Stir in 1/4 cup of the scallion greens, the Parmesan, the herbs, 1/4 teaspoon pepper (less to taste), 1/4 teaspoon salt, and chicken. Sprinkle with lemon juice and remaining olive oil (less to taste). Garnish with more scallions and basil.

Commentary:
I eliminated red pepper flakes. I added chicken. Why because these things please the wifey. Happy wife = happy life. Anyway the original recipe can be found here.

I bought two ears for fresh sweet corn. I wanted fresh because this was using fresh basil from my garden picked about an hour and half before dinner. This is going to be all fresh damnit!

Good Intentions

Reality.

I cook a fair bit and I like to cook weird things. That said, pasta sauce is diary based, oil based, tomato based, stock based, etc. A corn based sauce weirds me out. 

If you are still reading at this point, I just really like CORN. Growing up there was a local farm that had excellent sweet. Or more likely it was pretty average sweet corn, but childhood memories make me have an irrational like for CORN, so CORN!

Conclusion:
Simply delicious. Easily the best thing I have made recently. Make sure not to skimp on the cheese though.

Shepherd’s Pie

Mmm. Excessive cheese.

So there are some foods I think you do a disservice by having a recipe. Something like shepherd’s pie should not be tied down by convention. It should not be shackled with unnecessary rules. Damn the man, save the Empire! Then I got married. Now you bet your ass I have an EXACT recipe. 

I tell you this not to make fun of my wife (ok maybe a little of that too), but to encourage you to play with this one. It is a very forgiving recipe, so if you are new to cooking or a seasoned veteran: experiment. I will discuss further in the commentary. BTW when you get the commentary section get comfy. I have opinions: lots and lots of opinions. Some of which are even about cooking!

Waxing philosophical aside, this is a recipe made for leftovers that keep well. This gets dinner and three to four lunches (total) for my wifey and me. That is a big selling point for me.

Resources:
2-2 1/2 lbs potatoes
1 lb ground beef
1/2-1 sweet onion, dice
1 can corn, drained
8 oz frozen peas
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon thyme
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon flour
1 lb shredded provolone (or mozzarella ) cheese, divided
milk or butter (or better yet both)
salt and pepper

Method:
Skin and boil the potatoes until tender. Mash with 6 oz of cheese, milk, butter and salt to taste. Allow to cool slightly.

Cook the ground beef with the onion over medium heat until completely cooked. Drain some (not all) of the fat.

In a large bowl, mix the beef mixture, corn, peas, Worcestershire, thyme, cream of chicken soup, flour, and salt & pepper to taste. Transfer to an large deep baking dish (~8"x12"). Cover with a thick layer of potatoes. Top with remaining cheese.


Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes or until it is heated throughout and the cheese is melty. Broil briefly (~5 minutes) until cheese is lightly browned. Do not burn it (duh).

Broil phase is not really NECESSARY, but it gives it some color in the cheese and I like it.

Commentary:
Is she looking? No. Ok. We are safe to talk. The wifey has a crazy ground beef issue. I like to pick the right ground beef for the job. Burgers: 80/20. Hamburger helper: 90/10. And so on. If I let her have her way it would be 93/7 all the time. We compromise on 90/10 most of the time with the occasional 85/15. For whatever reason, she really hates 80/20. Anyway the point is in this recipe it does not matter much. The only difference for me is if I was using 80/20 I would drain the beef more thoroughly than the 90/10. I leave a fair bit of the liquefied fat in (not that there is much) with 90/10.

Let us talk about what is important and what is not important. Ground beef, mash potatoes, and some veggies are what make a shepherd’s pie. Beyond that it is personal taste. So let us talk a “little” about how I arrived at the above recipe.

Vegetables: I find a total of 2-3 cups to 1 lb of ground beef is a nice ratio. But you can use anything for the vegetables. Lots of onions and corn is what I like. Too many peas turn me off though. What can I say I do not like a lot of pea-ness (file that under jokes that do not translate to the written word). If you have frozen vegetable medley lying around use that. Like some crunch? Add diced carrots. The only catch is there is minimal oven cooking here, so anything (like raw carrots) that needs more cook time that has to be done before the oven.

Check out my meat / veggie balance. See it. Touch it. Taste it.

Potatoes: the mashed potatoes to “other” ratio is SUPER-DUPER important. This recipe comes with a little bit more potatoes than other, but pretty close. I have seen versions where you have 2-3X the potatoes. I have seen versions where the potatoes barely cover the dish. Like anything else, it is a taste thing.

Cheese: completely optional, but why would you ever OPT OUT of cheese? Honestly half the time I probably use more than a pound if I have it handy.

Seasoning: you do not want to overwhelm the potatoes and vegetables, but little/no seasoning comes across as bland. I like Worcestershire and a little bit of one of the Italian basics (thyme in this case). I have used oregano before too. I have found my happy palce, you should do the same. I just advise against going hog wild. Lightly seasoned is the goal here.

Cream of chicken: finally we come to the liquid. You can use broth if you want to go a little healthier.  Yes, cream of chicken is calorically heavy. I usually get about six servings out of this recipe, so I do not feel like they put this over the top into the unhealthy category. Point is you want to have something there. Otherwise this will be way too dry.  And I like something on the thicker side. Cream of chicken and flour accomplishes that. 

If you are still reading my long winded commentary section I award you an imaginary internet point. Congrats!

Conclusion:
It hits all four traditional food groups in one meal. It is easy to make. It is flexible (which helps when you forget the <BLANK> at the grocery). The ingredients are cheap. There is a reason this is a stable of my household.

Velveeta Burrito Meat

Mystery contents

I try not to waste food. You know saving money, children in Africa, and what not. I had half a block of Velveeta left over from Buffalo Chicken Soup and I did not have the ingredients for another batch of soup. I also had an old freezer burned pound of ground beef and left over cilantro. So burritos became a plan.

The challenge with things like this, in my mind at least, is finding something that does not require buying lots more things thus defeating the saving money angle (but still doing nothing for the children in Africa because I am a bad person or something). In this case I bought a thing of shredded lettuce and some wraps. I think that put me back roughly $3 and fed me for three meals.

So to get to the point today is not a recipe I am endorsing so much as an idea: throw a bunch of stuff in a slow cooker. It is a great money savings and relatively fool proof cooking-wise. 

Resources:

1 lb ground beef

8 oz Velveeta

1/2 cup salsa

1 packet taco seasoning

1 onion, diced

Put all ingredients in a slow cooker. Set to low.

In the first couple hours, stir every 30-45 minutes until cheese is mixed in and the beef is broken up. 

Cook for a total of 8 hours.

Commentary:

So I make some some Chipotle rice because it is awesome and to get rid of the old cilantro that was lying around. I rounded it out with some pickled jalapenos and shredded lettuce

Lettuce not pictured, duh.

I layered the ingredients originally. I did this because they just do not really mix well until partially cooked. 

Ugly old beef

Fake cheese.

Seriously onion is the only decent looking ingredient.

Conclusion:
Bought wraps and lettuce to use up Velveeta, cilantro, and old beef. I am pretty sure I came out ahead on this one.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

One of the greatest soups in the world is pictured here.

I love, love, love all things Buffalo sauce. Buffalo wings? Obviously. Buffalo chicken dip? Or course. Buffalo chicken mac 'n cheese? A personal favorite! Licking the plate clean after any of these? Well I do not want to waste food... So yeah, I love Buffalo chicken soup.

I should also point out I am a bit of an elitist on the subject. Ranch with your wings? Screw you, you heretic. Get off my blog and do not ever come back. Buffalo wings with the word BBQ anywhere near it are NOT Buffalo wings. They are chicken wings. Real Buffalo sauce has two main ingredients (cayenne pepper sauce and butter) with a few acceptable additives (garlic being the only really worth while one). I could go one, but I will not. 

I tell you these things not to offend, but to establish the emotional level I have when it comes to this type of recipe. When you get to my rant about flavor in the commentary, I hope you will take me seriously.

Resources: 

1/4 cup butter
2 bunches green onions, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)

3/4 cup chicken broth

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1/4-1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Original (do NOT use wing sauce - see commentary)

4 ounces Velveeta cheese (cut into a few pieces)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Method:

Sauté the onions and celery in butter until as tender as you want (using medium heat).

Stir in flour until smooth.

Add milk and broth a little at a time. Stir until completely mixed before adding more.

Once all the liquids are thoroughly mixed in, add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, simmer, stirring occasionally, until cheese has completely melted.

Commentary:

As noted I have strong options about all things Buffalo sauce, so please hear me out. Frank's Red Hot Original (or similar cayenne pepper hot sauce) is the best flavor for this recipe. I strongly suggest against using a "wing sauce". Cayenne pepper sauce is an ingredient and primary flavor of most wing sauces, but they tend to be "creamier" than Frank's. They might not have actual butter mixed in, but they taste like they do. The problem is this recipe has lots of creamy (milk, butter, Velveeta) mixed in. By doubling down on creamy flavor can really cut back on that main flavors: cayenne and vinegar which is key to true "Buffalo" flavor. If you think Frank's is too spicy, I beg you just to use less, not a wing sauce. 

As much as I love Bdub's (and I seriously do), this is not the time or place for their sauce.

Make sure you really give the Velveeta lots of time to melt. I would say at least 5-10 minutes after you do not see any chunks left. The smaller chunks are hard to distinguish from chicken, so even if you cannot see any they are probably still there. Just make sure you do not have the heat high enough that you are going to burn anything.

Speaking of it, I feel a little sick to the stomach every time I buy Velveeta. I do not know why, just something about a "cheese product" in a box a weirds me out. That said it is worth it for this glorious soup.

This is an easily customized recipe. The butter, flour, milk, broth, and Velveeta should not be significantly altered, but go nuts elsewhere. Want it vegetarian? Leave out the chicken. Love (or hate) the crunch of celery? Add or reduce as desired. I used a little bit less green onions in this batch just because they looked terrible at the local grocer. You can add all kinds of fun things to this recipe and it will be good.

What I felt like adding today.

This makes about two large meal sized bowls. It freezes very well so I have been known to made double and quadruple batches and eat it for the next week or two.

Conclusion:

I will make again and again and again and again. Great for the winter since it is a thick, hot, spicy soup.

Adobo Chicken and Rice



It is not pretty, but damn is it ever convenient.


So most of what I have posted to date has been recipes I have either loved or found unique. This is neither of those. This is easy, like your mom. BURN! It is filing. It resents the four "classic" food groups. The wifey likes it. It makes for great left overs. I could go on. Point is this is a quick easy type thing not a gourmet kind of thing.

Resources:
1 container (8 oz.) yellow rice
1 tablespoons oil (roughly)
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 teaspoons Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning without pepper
1/4 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Method:
Over medium heat, bring 2 cups water to boil. Add contents of yellow rice mix; return water to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook, covered, until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onions to skillet. Cook for a minute or two. Add chicken and Adobo. Mix well. Cook, stirring, until vegetables are soft and chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
Stir in cooked chicken and veggies into the rice until combined. Mix in cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted. Serve warm.

Commentary:
Make sure you pan is big enough for everything, ie if it is nearly full with just the rice it is not big enough. Or you can do it the opposite route and add the rice to the chicken, whatever is easier.

We've tried a couple different brands of yellow rice, but this one is our preferred.



By "our" I mean the wifey's as I cannot tell the difference between this and the other Vigo Yellow Rice.

I usually mix up the cheese. We usually use half shredded cheddar and shredded half reduced fat Mexican blend. Why those two? Those are the two cheeses we always have in the house.

Although pretty easy, this does require a fair bit of slicing an dicing.

I cheated and used pre-shredded cheese.

I frequently make this in double batches. One batch is just about right (or maybe a bit much) for the two of us. A double batch allows for a couple meals of leftovers as well.


So we make this a fair bit and I decided to buy the bulk Adobo seasoning. The lid did not like me. :(


Oh what a nice lid you have. The better for measuring spoons.
Right?

Oh look, it is even conveniently labeled which one is the spoon side. How nice.

DENIED!!!

Conclusion:
Happy wifey! Leftovers galore! Minimal effort and cleanup! What is not to love?