Alton Brown's Baked Brown Rice to the Rescue

As much as I like the flavor and chewiness of it, I've mostly avoided cooking brown rice.  I just don't like feeling strapped to the stove for 45 minutes to an hour, making sure it neither boils over or scorches. I usually ended up serving it before it was really done or adding too much water, resulting in a mushy mess.

But I needed brown rice to go under the vegetarian curry to serve my non-carnivorous friends. So, to the internet to find an easy and fool-proof way to make brown rice, one that needed little or no attention as the rest of the last minute Thanksgiving dinner preparations were underway.

Alton Brown's baked brown rice recipe to the rescue! For once I followed the recipe pretty closely with the exception of using olive oil rather than butter to avoid animal products for my vegan friend. I just made another batch using butter to go under tonight's leftover turkey & gravy. Yummy.

My method varies from Alton Brown a teeny bit, for example, using the microwave to heat the water in the dish I will cook the rice in.  You need steady hands to get the shallow dish of hot water out of the microwave without sloshing. So use your best judgment and avoid getting scalded!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups brown rice
• 1 Tablespoon butter or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups water

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
   
2. In an 8-inch square glass baking dish, microwave the water, butter or oil, and salt until hot.
3. Stir to assure the salt is fully dissolved.
4. Add the rice and distribute throughout the pan.
5. Cover tightly with foil.
6. Bake for one hour.
7. Remove foil and fluff the rice.

No watched pot.  No boiling over. No clumping.  Just perfect brown rice. 

Thank you, Alton!  Brown rice will now be a frequent player in my cooking!

Honey Lemon Chicken with Yogurt and Cucumber Salad

This is a vaguely Eastern Mediterranean meal and a fine way to use some pre-cooked chicken. It has three parts: lemon zest rice, lemon-honey chicken, and yogurt-cucumber salad. The rice is aromatic, the chicken is sweet, and the salad has a kick from raw garlic.

Ingredients for two servings:

• 8 oz. pre-cooked chicken
• 1/2-2/3 cup rice
  
• Juice and zest a lemon
• 2-3 Tbl. honey
• 1-2 tsp. cumin
• 1 cucumber, seeds removed and sliced
  
• 1 small container plain yogurt (fat free okay)
• 1 Tbl. fresh dill, chopped fine
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• salt & white pepper
• water or chicken broth to cook the rice
  

Procedure:

1. Rinse the rice in a colander with running water and set aside, covered with water to soak for 10 minutes
   
2. Zest the lemon and set aside
3. Squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl big enough to hold the chicken.
   
4. Add honey and cumin to the lemon juice and stir.
   
5. Adjust the lemon juice : honey : cumin proportions to balance the flavors.
6. Toss the chicken in the mixture and set aside
7. Pare, seed and slice the cucumber
8. Toss the cucumber with the yogurt, minced garlic, dill, salt and white pepper. Set aside to meld the flavors.
9. Rinse the rice one more time, drain and cover with water or chicken broth so that the liquid is about 1/4 inch above the rice.
10. Cover and bring the rice to a boil and then reduce to low and let simmer about 10 minutes, until the liquid disappears.
11. Turn off the heat but keep covered and let steam until the rice is done, about 10 minutes.
12. Warm the sauced chicken in the microwave.
13. To serve, pile rice in center of plate, spread chicken over the rice, and spoon the cucumber salad around it.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Rice with Carrots, Mushrooms, and Dill Yogurt Sauce

This is a great follow-up meal to the Dilly Chicken and Potato Salad we had the other night because it uses up the extra cooked chicken and the leftover dill and yogurt. It takes its inspiration from recipes for Turkish rice and for a Turkish carrot, dill and yogurt salad.
Ingredients (amounts can be adjusted easily):

• 1 pre-cooked white meat chicken fillet, cut in bite-sized pieces
  
• 1 finely minced shallot
  
• 8-12 sliced mushrooms
• 3-4 carrots, sliced
• 1 cup white rice
• 1 to 1 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  
• several sprigs fresh dill, finely minced
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbl. olive oil
  
• salt and white pepper

Procedure:

1. Put the rice in a colander and rinse with cold water. Then put the colander in a deep bowl and fill with hot tap water to cover the rice. Let this soak while you cut the mushrooms and shallots.
   
2. In a pan with a lid, heat the olive oil and sauté the shallots and mushrooms for a few minutes.
3. While the shallots and mushrooms are cooking, slice the carrots and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
4. Rinse the rice once more with cold water.
5. Add the chicken, carrots, rice and chicken broth to the pan and stir.
   
6. Cover and as soon as it comes to a boil, turn it down to simmer. The rice will take less time than usual to cook because it has already soaked up a lot of water, perhaps a little as 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it.
   
7. While the mixture is cooking, finely mince the dill and the garlic.
8. Stir the dill, garlic, salt and white pepper into the yogurt.

When the rice is done, move the pan off the heat and let the steam continue to fluff the rice for about 5 minutes. Serve the rice mixture with a dollop of yogurt sauce on top.

Play with the proportions to fit your druthers. Next time I'll probably use less rice and more yogurt. We really liked the yogurt sauce!