Chicken, Broccoli & Rice Dish (NOT soup)
As a mom of three children, who of course are all very active and are continuously GO, GO, GO! I know how important it is to be able to make a healthy meal, but also having the need for something quick and that doesn't require an hour or so of time for preparing and cooking the meal. This is why I figured I'd share some of my quick recipes with you. We all have different tastes and you can substitute some ingredients to better suit your diet and/or taste buds.
This is seriously so easy! If you haven't really cooked from scratch, but would like to start here is a great starting meal. You only need FOUR simple ingredients!
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
- Broccoli (frozen or fresh will work, I used fresh)
- Rice (I used white, but you could use brown or wild rice, etc)
- 1 can of Cream of Chicken or Mushroom Soup OR Chicken Broth
- Seasoning of your choice for chicken. I used Adobo.
For the ingredients I honestly just used what I had at home, I didn't really plan this meal out. I had boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fresh broccoli, white rice (minute rice!) and I would have preferred cream of chicken soup, but I only had chicken broth. I added the chicken broth for a little more flavor, but you could probably even leave it out. As for the seasoning, just season your chicken as you normally do. Sometimes I season my chicken with Lawry's Seasoning Salt. You could use an Italian Blend seasoning, Greek, whatever your taste buds water for. For this chicken I used Adobo and would have also used some Sazon if I had any.
Lets Get Cooking!
Boil the water for your rice, BUT! Substitute 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup of cream of chicken/mushroom OR chicken broth. While waiting for it to boil, prepare your broccoli (see below). Then cook your rice as directed.
Dice up your broccoli! I just cut the branches or "baby trees" off of the stalk, the bigger baby trees I cut in half. Boil your broccoli in water with 1-2 tbsp of butter (depending on amount of broccoli), you may also salt the water. Cover the broccoli as it boils to help steam it and soften it quicker. If you have a steamer then use that, I don't have one.
Grill your chicken! All I do is "grill" the chicken on my stove in my grill pan (ridged bottom, pretty neat pan). I don't grill my chicken in oil or butter. I just place it in the pan, season it, let it cook, flip and season again then flip back and forth a few times till cooked through. You can cook your chicken in oil or butter if you wish. Once your chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pan. While your pan is still hot CAREFULLY poor the rest of your chicken broth in the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
Once everything is cooked, "assemble" your meal!
Spoon your rice onto/into your dish, then lay a piece of chicken on top of the rice. Spoon the chicken broth from the pan on top of the chicken and rice. Then add some broccoli on top.
Enjoy!
Honestly, I think this meal only took about 15 mins. The broccoli took the longest to cook at about 15 minutes to get it nice and soft, if you have a steamer or buy frozen broccoli in a steamer bag it'll only take about 5-7 minutes! The rice only took 5 minutes as I used Minute Rice and the chicken takes roughly 5 minutes. So if you follow the steps above and have everything going at about the same time it shouldn't take long at all.
My 8 year old and I loved it! My 3 year old only ate the rice and my 4 year old is the picky eater/texture aversion so he always has his own "meal".
