Sat, 18th Aug 2007

I've wanted to make this for the longest time since I saw the recipe here. With no errands to run and no groceries to buy this morning, here goes my first attempt at Baked Chicken Rice.

First, assemble the ingredients:

- marinated drumsticks, calrose rice, chopped onion, finely chopped garlic, carrots, broccoli (I later blanched them for 3 seconds), mushrooms and a can of mushroom soup. (I was very very reluctant to use this and wanted to simply make a white sauce) but decided against it. (Wisely or not, we shall see when the dish is cooked)!!

I decided to brown the marinated drumsticks first and this was done in a non-stick pan with olive oil.

Put aside. (don't forget to garnish with parsley to make a nicer pic)!

Next, I heated some butter and olive oil in a clean pan, lightly fried the garlic and onion and later the rice. The rice smells good at this point; butter, olive oil, garlic and onions always make a lovely combination. When the rice is well mixed and with the oils, remove and put into an ovenproof dish. Dilute the can of soup with a can of hot water and whisk, then add to rice mixture, and stir through.

And now the fun part, decorating the dish with broccoli and carrot flowers. I know, I didn't like the look of the 'grey' soup too.

After this, I found that I had just enough space for 4 drumsticks to go on top of the rice, so 4 it will be. I will simply bake the other 2 in another dish later.

Then I topped the dish with sliced mushrooms (pity you can't see the drumsticks from here on), and added some parmesan cheese, a crackling of black pepper, parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

Here it is:

And here are 2 pics of Calrose rice which I bought from the supermarket.

Well, fingers crossed, I will start baking the rice at 11.45 am and it will be just ready when my kids come back from school at 12.45 pm. I hope it will turn out good and they will like it, otherwise we will have to call in a pizza!! Or pop out quickly for $3 rice.