Last night I decided to try a recipe for Rice Broccoli Chicken Cheese Bake. (Essentially the name of the recipe is just listing all the food that’s in it.) I got the inspiration from a recipe on Pinterest and decided it sounded healthy and maybe kind of good since I’m starting to appreciate broccoli more. I should have known from the beginning it was bad news. I checked on the lady’s website and learned that she didn’t relist any of the measurements of the ingredients for it. Of course not. Why would you do that? And, I’m by the books, so I need to know the exact ounce and teaspoon for every item. Thankfully she’d posted a picture of where she took the recipe from. I was able to zoom in on it from my computer to read what it said.

Multi-tasking

So, the first thing to know about me is that I like to multi-task. To the extreme. I read the recipe and saw all sorts of steps and decided I could just combine them and do them at the same time. Also, it called for Uncle Ben’s instant rice, which we didn’t have, so I decided to improvise. After arguing with my knight about how many boxes of Rice -A-Roni to add to equal the 17.6 ounces of Uncle Ben’s (he won…and was right), I started to make the 25 minute rice. While that was cooking, I decided to cook the chicken. Then boil the broccoli. It seemed to actually work well, except that the chicken was kind of cooled off by the time it was all finished. One thing I do wish I would have done differently was cut the broccoli and chicken into smaller pieces. I like to have my broccoli as small as possible to try to forget it’s there.

Before broiling

One of the mistakes I made was I missed the part about putting the broccoli, mustard, and cheese into the gravy-ish mix. So, I added it to the top. It ended up being a good thing I made that mistake because I followed it up with another mistake. So, the recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of mustard. I added dry mustard. Not wet mustard. When I realized that 3 tablespoons is literally an entire container of dry mustard…that I just poured into the dish. I somehow had a recollection that dry mustard isn’t the same as wet mustard and that it was a lot. I took the broccoli that was covered in mustard and stuck it under some running water to rinse it off. Whoops. I then reread the instructions and put the broccoli and scooped up the cheese to put into the mix. I then followed the instructions and broiled the casserole in the oven.

It actually tasted really good…until I ate a bite of broccoli that I hadn’t rinsed very well. I decided at that point one serving was enough for me. Good thing my knight loves mustard. And really, a cup and half a cheese isn’t that healthy. But, if there’s something green in there it’s automatically healthy. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

Ingredients:

• 2 (8.8 ounce) packages Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice
• 1 ½ pounds chicken tenderloins
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 onion chopped
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 ½ pounds broccoli, florets chopped, stems peeled and sliced thin crosswise
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese

1. Adjust oven rack 5 inches from heating element and heat broiler. Cut slits in rice packets and microwave until hot, about 90 seconds. Remove rice from packets and spread evenly over bottom of broiler-safe baking dish.
2. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken until light golden brown and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to baking dish, arranging in single layer over rice.
3. Add remaining butter and onion to empty skillet and cook until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook until thoroughly incorporated, about 1 minute. Whisk in broth and cream and simmer until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the broccoli, about 5 minutes. Drain broccoli.
4. Stir mustard, 1 cup cheese, and broccoli into sauce in skillet. Season with salt and pepper, then pour broccoli sauce mixture over chicken and rice in baking dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top and broil until cheese is browned, 2 to 4 minutes. Serve.

The finished product