Monday, February 18, 2008

Baked Chicken and Rice



This is one of my favorite one-dish dinners. This version is perfect for 2 (I halved it from the original Real Simple recipe).

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup long-grain white rice
  • 1 cup canned diced tomatoes (I prefer no-salt-added brands)
  • 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
Heat oven to 400° F.

In a large bowl, combine the rice, tomatoes and their juices, broth, orange juice, parsley, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Transfer mixture to a square glass baking dish. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Nestle the chicken pieces among the rice mixture. Bake until the chicken is cooked through and rice is tender, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven. Let stand for 5 minutes. Spoon the rice and chicken into individual bowls.

CALORIES 140(2% from fat); FAT 23g (sat 0g); SUGAR 4g; PROTEIN 4g; CHOLESTEROL 0mg; SODIUM 763mg; FIBER 2g; CARBOHYDRATE 28g (approximate Weight Watchers Points per serving: 4)

Once again, I like to use brown rice in place of white rice whenever possible. For this recipe I get a pot of brown rice going while I prep everything else; then, when the brown rice has precooked for about 20-25 minutes, I drain it and add it to the tomato-onion mixture and proceed as written. I also flip the chicken breasts over about halfway through baking and give the rice mixture a stir to ensure even cooking.

3 comments:

Laura said...

This sounds delicious, but I'm really skeptical of the nutritional information. 2 chicken breasts are 460 calories (unless you mean two 3 oz portions, which are 240), and 1/2 cup rice is 170 calories. Is the nutritional information from Real Simple, or did you compute it? If so, how?

I definitely want to try this when I get home this weekend though.

Sun Runner said...

I just cut and pasted the nutrition info from Real Simple. You're right, though; 140 calories per serving does not sound right at all. That's about as much as a bowl of cereal. The chicken breasts I used were easily 4 (in my case) and 6 (my husband's) ounces each.

Fritz said...

Yah... um, if it really has 23g fat, that would equal 207 calories in a serving, which is more than 2% of 140.

I think Real Simple made a few math errors...

Sounds very tasty tho!