It doesn’t feel like I was away for two weeks. Three cities, staying in four states, travelling through a further two, four flights and a fair number of delays later (and more food than one human should reasonable consume in such a time) I’m home from the US. And very, very sleepy.
I’ll get around to boring everyone with my holiday food discoveries - needless to say that I’m not at all surprised that some Americans are larger than small whales - when I’ve got more than ten minutes at home before I fall asleep. I’ll find some decent photos in the ridiculous number I took (we’re talking about 600…) and tell you a tale or two.
In the mean time though, it’s time for another Dinner in a Hurry. Something that could be made in the time between getting home from a run and the Great British Bake Off started (approximately 25 minutes). Why run if you’re tired? Well, because stupid here signed up to do Edinburgh’s Survival of the Fittest in 11 days time. A 10 kilometre obstacle course up, down and around the wonderfully hilly centre of town. Clearly I’m an idiot, but it’s too late to back down now. And who doesn’t like a challenge?
This is another in my mini-series of dinners that can be made in very little time, following in the footsteps of gnocchi and couscous it seemed only right that rice featured next. OK, so if you were making more of a meal out of it, I would do something more exciting with the chicken pieces and the greens weren’t exactly imaginative, but if you’re in a hurry it does the trick and still tastes fantastic.The rice is also a fantastic side dish in its own right, so also a very versatile recipe to keep around.
Chicken with Pesto Rice and Greens
This recipe was thrown together a bit ad hoc, although the rice is based on a side dish that a couple of friends brought over a couple of months back. It takes very little time to prepare and serves two people. If you want to jazz it up, you can do more with the veg and perhaps give the chicken a glaze.
Ingredients
150g brown rice
1 ball of mozzarella
4 sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
3 tbsp red pesto
2 chicken breasts (or diced equivalent)
1 pack of mixed green vegetables
Directions
Wash your rice and put it on the hob to boil with twice as much water as rice. Dice up your chicken (if you haven’t already got it diced) into large chunks and place under the grill to cook. Whilst these two are cooking, slice the mozzarella (it will melt quicker) and sun-dried tomatoes, ready to go into the cooked rice.
When the rice is nearing being cooked, put a steamer above the pan and put in the prepared vegetables (obviously if you’ve not been as lazy as me here you would prep the veg before this - if you have bought ‘prepared’ veg, remember to give it a rinse). Steam the vegetables over the boiling rice for 3-5 minutes, then remove to one side and drain the rice. Once drained, rinse the rice with boiling water to remove excess starch. Remember to keep an eye on the chicken and remove the pieces once cooked, before they dry out.
Put the rice back in the pan, then add in the pesto, mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes, stirring until they are warmed through. Put onto the plate with the still hot veg and chicken, serve and enjoy.
Edinburgh-dwelling, baking and food-obsessed, twenty-something adventure enthusiast. Runs on liberal amounts of coffee, cheese, cake and gin; bribable with same.
