First Post First Dinner

Parboiled Wild Rice Mix with Chicken & Vegetables

Ingredients- (Serves Two) Prep Time: ~30 minutes

1. Parboiled Rice with Wild Rice (store bought bag 100g)
2. 1 Bag of Frozen Vegetable Mix 450g (I used an Oriental Mix which includes carrots, peas, leek, sugar snap peas, Mung bean sprouts, and Chinese mushrooms)
3. 1 Chicken Breast
4. 1 small-medium sized onion chopped
5. Handful of Chives finely chopped
6. 2-3 cloves of garlic
7. Small piece of fresh ginger or powdered ginger (teaspoon)
8.Paprika
9. Salt and Pepper to taste
10. Soy sauce
11. Fresh Lemon Juice
12. Oil for cooking



Day 1
 
The most important part of this dish is the chicken. Start making this dish the day before. Take one chicken breast. Rinse and clean. The best part is the marinade! Cut the chicken into small strips and place in a widened container. Pour soy sauce all over the chicken until each piece is almost swimming in the sauce. Remember, soy sauce is salty! Do NOT salt your chicken just yet. Wait until the dish is cooked and then add salt/pepper to taste. Add garlic and ginger. Add lemon juice. Add a small teaspoon of oil. Mix well. Marinate the chicken overnight. The acidic lemon juice and saltiness of the soy sauce will tenderize the chicken to perfection.

Day 2

This dish is extremely easy to make because everything can cook at the same time on the stove.
Boil water 2:1 water:rice ratio. Two cups of water = One cup of rice.
Heat up a wok with a good amount of quality oil.
Heat up a skillet with no/minimal oil. *Remember the chicken has oil on it from the marinade!

When the water starts boiling, add salt to flavor and cook the rice.
If you are using fresh vegetables, slice them and toss them into the wok. I used frozen vegetables which are just as tasty. Cook them on high heat. Frozen vegetables have some water in them which makes them cook perfectly. If your vegetables are burning you can always add some water for them to cook more thoroughly if you prefer them soft. A classic chicken and rice meal usually has crunchy vegetables, though.
 
Cook your chicken on the heated skillet. There should be a nice juice that formed. Make sure you don't overcook your chicken. A great tip is to start off at high heat for the meat to seal its pores, then lower the heat to medium-low and let the chicken cook in its own juice. It will become super soft.
Mix the vegetables and keep an eye on them. The rice should be almost done by now. Transfer the meat into the wok with the vegetables and lower the heat to low. Mix everything thoroughly.
 
If you want extra flavor and color in this dish, add some spices in the last 3-5minutes the rice is cooking. I usually use some curry and paprika. Feel free to use some of your favorite far eastern spices.
Serve when hot, add some chopped chives to decorate.

ENJOY :)