My daughter-in-law bought me a rice cooker and steamer for Mother's Day. I'm not a big rice fan but she suggested I try Basmati rice instead of plain white rice.I tried it and was impressed! So last night I decided to make an easy quick supper using my crock pot and my new rice cooker.
Because I had some vegetables that were growing old in my fridge, I wanted to incorporate them into supper. The photo on the left is what I ended up with! Honestly, it was delicious.
Unfortunately I didn't take pictures as I went along because I didn't know how it was going to turn out. Does anyone else other than me "taste" food in your head? I taste any recipe in my head when I read it. I think about what foods and spices to put together by tasting them in my head.
Ingredient List
1 package of boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 onion cut into quarters and sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or mashed if you prefer
1 Tbsp white wine
1 zucchini
14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp. of Italian seasoning
1 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 cube of tomato paste (explanation of size of a cube is in the instructions below)
1 cup raw Basmati rice
chicken broth (whatever amount of liquid your rice package says to use)
tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Method
I started by browning a package of chicken thighs in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I think there were 8 in the package. It only took about 12 minutes to give the chicken a nice golden colour. I removed the thighs and dumped them in my crock pot. Then I sliced an onion and sauteed it for a few minutes in the same pan where the chicken had been, then added it to the crock pot.
I sliced 3 garlic cloves into small slivers and sauteed them briefly too. You could use a garlic press, and omit the browning, just dump the mashed garlic directly into the crock pot.
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| My Rice Cooker |
Adding about 1 Tbsp. of white wine, I deglazed the bits in the saute pan, and dumped that into the crockpot too. Next came 1/3 of a 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, 2 tsp. of Italian seasoning, 1 tsp. oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
The last thing I added was one ice-cube piece of frozen tomato paste. That's right - I free my leftover tomato paste in an ice cube tray. You know how no matter how small a can of tomato paste you buy, you can't use it all and the rest ends up sitting in your fridge and eventually getting thrown out? I freeze my leftovers in an ice cube tray, then put them in a zip lock baggie to toss into dishes using tomatoes. Works great and no need to defrost the cubes - just toss 'em in frozen.
I set my crock pot on HIGH and a timer for 1 hour. When the timer buzzed, I sliced a zucchini in large chunks (cut in half along it's length and then in approximately 1/2 inch slices) and tossed the slices into the crock pot, then give everything a stir. Another 1 1/2 hours on HIGH and it was time to start my rice.
For the rice I used chicken broth instead of water as the liquid, and just 1 cup of raw rice. I put that in my Aroma Rice cooker and added a tiny squeeze of lemon. Then I prepared fresh asparagus, set the stalks in the top tray of the rice cooker to steam, and set the cooker to White Rice. In 20 minutes the rice and asparagus were done, and my chicken dish was also ready.
All in all this dish took 3 hours on HIGH to cook. The rice and asparagus took 20 minutes to cook. I served the chicken dish on top of the rice with the steamed asparagus on the side.
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