Friday, May 23, 2014

In The Kitchen: CHICKEN & BACON RICE BAKE


One of the things I fell in love with while living in Hawaii was baked rice dishes!!  They're a blend of East and West.  It's a rice dish usually covered in cheese, gravy or tomato sauce and sometimes all three!  This dish is awesome you can make it with whatever ingredients you have in the fridge.

I've made this exact dish with shrimp and mushrooms before and it was delicious!  

Hubs specifically requested Chicken & Bacon tonight so here we go :)

Ingredients:

2 strips of bacon (1 strip per person)
1 onion
pepper
4 cups broccoli (you can use less lol!)
1 cup cooked chicken (I bake an entire chicken for the week to make meal prep easier and for the chicken stock)
3 cups leftover refrigerated rice
cooking spray
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp garlic
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup white cheddar
1/4 cup mozzarella (save half for topping at the end)
1/4 cup Parmesan (save half for topping at the end)
1/4 cup furikake


Begin by dicing your bacon and onion into small pieces.


Take a oven proof baking dish and spray with cooking spray.


And now you will begin "layering" your baked rice dish.

Add your LEFT OVER rice.  

The reason you want to use left over refrigerated rice is because it tends to hold up better against the cheese and cream sauce you will put on top.  If you use fresh same day made rice the dish will become too soggy.


Saute your diced bacon and onions.


Season with black pepper. 

(I chose not to salt this dish because you will get plenty of salt from the bacon & cheeses)

Cook bacon until your preferred done-ness.  

People tend to feel very strongly about how "done" they like their bacon.

But don't forget you will be baking the bacon in the oven so you don't want to over cook either!


Then combine your bacon, onion with your broccoli and chicken and mix together.


Then spread evenly over your rice in the baking dish.


Once you're done with the "layers" of your rice dish you can put it to the side.

Pre-Heat oven 400 Degrees F.


And begin your Cheese Sauce.

Add your chicken stock and butter over low heat.


Add your garlic.


Forgot to add this in the ingredients picture at the beginning but you'll also need 1/4 cup milk.


And then you can add in your cheeses. You really can use whatever cheeses you want - you can even just do one type of cheese if you prefer.  I just used what I had in my fridge at the time.  

Add in your cheddar, half of your mozzarella and half of your Parmesan (you'll want to save half for the topping later). 


Make sure you stir, stir, stir!


At about this point I like to add in some cornstarch (sorry forgot to add this in the ingredients picture)  I just realized it was a bit watery as I was making it so I wanted to thicken the sauce.


I pour a little bit of the sauce from the sauce pan into a cup and mix with the cornstarch until it dissolves and then add it back into the cooking cheese sauce.

Don't just add your cornstarch DIRECTLY into the sauce pan it won't dissolve properly and will cause lumps in your sauce.


Stir until everything is completely dissolved and your sauce is thick enough to coat the back of your cooking utensil.


Pour your sauce carefully over your rice dish that you prepared earlier.


Now you'll want to do a foil cover on top of your baking dish.  Doing this prevents the cheese sauce from burning while it's in the oven.  

And then pop it into the oven for 30 mins.


After 30 mins. pull from oven take off foil cover and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese from earlier.


Bake for another 10 min or so just until the Cheese browns you'll want to keep an eye on this depending on your oven it could brown much quicker!


Sprinkle with Furikake for garnish and extra seasoning!


Serve piping hot! :)

21 comments:

  1. looks so yummy :)

    http://sbr-fashion-fashion.blogspot.com/

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  3. mmmmm looks so good especially now that I'm finally on my lunch break (2:30pm) it's a late lunch but I'm starving hahaha

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  4. This looks so yummyyy.. thanks for sharing this recipe.. now I can make good use of left over rice !

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  5. Yum!! Do you know what can be a suitable subitute for the cheese? Some people in my family is becoming lactose intolerant ):

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  6. So yummy!

    I am following you now on gfc, would you like to follow me back so we can stay in touch?

    http://mypetitecorner.blogspot.com

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  7. This looks and sounds sooo delicious Lisa! I've been craving a baked rice/pasta dish recently!

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  8. What a delicious and nutritious idea! I will have to replace the meat with more veg, but I am sure it will still be so good! Thanks for your comment, have a wonderful start to the weekend.

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  9. Ooh that sounds so good! Thanks for the recipe, will have to try it out. Have a great weekend!!
    Best, Mree

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  10. Oh gosh this dish looking so good! I really wanna try making this!! Im just imagining right now how your spoon look like when you scoop them out to your mouth! lol i know weird imagination but the gooey gooey cheese oh sounds good!!

    www.yoannita90.blogspot.com

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  11. i love one dish dinners! the furikake is what makes the dish, lol! yum!

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  12. I made a dish with broccoli, but I think I cooked it too long... how long do you cook your broccoli?
    I really enjoy reading your recipe's!!
    xoxo
    Suzanne from written by suzanne

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  13. Another delicious recipe, wow now I need eat~
    Thanks for share this recipe!
    xx

    www.sakuranko.com

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  14. ur recipes are so tempting n yum yum.. Thanks fr sharing the recipe Lisa.. Happy Weekend xo
    http://natashabhatt.blogspot.in/

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  15. So yummy ! Thank you for this recipe, I must try it ! :)

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  16. Ah this looks incredible! I can't believe how skilled you are in the kitchen? hehe any tips for someone who can barely handle making toast? ^^'

    Hayfa
    www.londonloafers.com

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  17. Looks so delish and healthy! Thanks for the recipe honey! :)
    x
    Phoebe | Eat. Live. Love. Repeat.

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  18. I am absolutely in love with your food posts! Thanks for sharing your weight loss journey and your fashion sense. You are an inspiration and you look absolutely amazing!

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