Chicken And Cheesy Rice

What you'll need:
Regular white rice (enough for five cups cooked rice)
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)
Broccoli
Six slices American cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Season salt
Parmesan cheese

How to do it:
Get your rice going first. Maybe your rice comes in a box or a bag, but the directions should be on it. If you just have some white rice in a jar, this is the formula I used: 1 2/3 cup of dry rice mixed with 3 1/3 cup of water. I usually throw in a tablespoon of margarine. A teaspoon of salt is optional (I don't like to use it; there will be plenty of salt later). Again, if you don't have cooking preparations for your rice, I brought the water to a boil, covered the pan (it's got to be pretty big) and put the burner on low to simmer for 14 minutes.

During those 14 minutes, start working on the chicken. Cut the chicken lengthwise into strips. Once that is done, stab it with a fork a few times. Take half of your stick of margarine and melt it in a medium size bowl. Put your chicken strips in the margarine and add some paprika or season salt, no more than a teaspoon, but you don't have to measure it, just shake until it looks okay and not too much. Stir it up so that the season salt gets mixed in evenly. Put the chicken on some sort of grilling aparatus. It could be an outside grill (charcoal or propane), George Foreman grill (if that is your thing), or the way I go with a Farberware (at least this time of the year). After you put it on the grill, you can add some season salt if you want, but definitely put on some Parmesan cheese at this point. Don't forget to check your rice.

Your rice should be done before too long. When the rice looks done, give it a taste test to be sure the texture is right. If it is good, add the cream of mushroom soup, cheeses, milk, and the other half of the stick of margarine. It will help to stir it in if you have a small amount of heat under the pan. You used a big pan right? This is a good amount of ingredients. It is also good to to add some more season salt at this point, but don't go nuts! All told you probably don't want more than two teaspons of season salt. Use your best judgement. Turn off the fire when you're done stiring.

Don't forget to flip the chicken.

Next is broccoli. I don't like broccoli, but I put it in there anyway. More on this later. Anyway, you put brocolli however you like it in a small pan with water and boil it for a while. Drain it and set it aside.

Chicken done? Rice done? Broccoli done? Good. Sounds like you're done. Guess again. All this stuff has to stew together and the juices complement each other. Okay, if you like broccoli, go ahead and mix it in with the rice. If not, you can put the broccoli on the very bottom so that the broccoli eaters can have some (or off to the side, whatever). A good idea would be to add a few heaping spoonfuls of rice to the broccoli and mix it up and set that mixture in one part of the bowl. Add the rest of the cheesy rice. Then add the chicken on top. Push it down just a little so that it is nested nicely in the cheesy rice, but not so that the top is covered. It needs to breathe. This whole mixture should go in a big baking bowl/pan/pot. If you can't find one big enough with a lid, you can cover it with a pizza pan. Bake this stuff in a preheated oven at about 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Take it out, dish some on a plate, and let cool before sticking it in your mouth. Makes for great leftovers.