Mom's Chicken and Rice

When I sit back and think about "comfort" food.. this is one of the first 2 dishes that leap into my mind. The rice is so rich and delicious, and the chicken comes out juicy... and, as most recipes on this blog, it is so simple to make.

3 cups uncooked white rice

3 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup*

3 cups of Milk or Half and Half (no heavy cream, it curdles)

3 cups of Water or Chicken Broth (if you use broth omit the chicken base)

1 T. Chicken Base

Garlic Salt, Season Salt and Pepper

Butter and Vegetable Oil (or just Oil, Canola oil will also work, Olive and Peanut Oil do not)

4-6 Bone in Chicken Breasts with Skin on. ( or you can use one whole cut up chicken

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Pat chicken pieces dry with a paper towel. Meanwhile in a deep frying pan, melt your butter and oil together to thoroughly cover the bottom of the pan. (2-3 Tablespoons of each should do.) Get the pan good and hot without burning the butter, and place your chicken in skin side down. Do not crowd the pan, otherwise the chicken will steam and you will have a horrible mess on your hands, so if you need to do it in 2 batches. Do NOT put ANY SALT on the chicken at this point as you will only extract out the juices and will have dry chicken in the final product. Sear the chicken until you have a nice golden brown color on each side. The way to tell that the chicken is ready to flip and it has a nice color to it, is the chicken will readily remove itself from the pan with little to no pulling of the skin. If you go for the chicken and you absolutely cannot move it, either 1. the skin is not seared enough or 2. when you put the chicken in the pan, not enough oil or butter got under the chicken and it stuck to the bottom of the pan, so make sure there is ample oil/butter in the pan when starting this process, or use a good non-stick pan. While you chicken is cooking, spray a 9x13 pan or a deep baking/roasting pan with cooking spray and put the rice down in the bottom of the pan. Mix the soup , broth and milk in a bowl. Pour half the mixture over the rice. Place the seared chicken pieces on top.**
Now, season the chicken liberally with the garlic salt, season salt and pepper! Add rest of soup mixture around the chicken. Cover tightly with aluminum foil, very tightly! and bake at 350 degrees for 2 to 21/2 hours until rice and chicken are cooked.
The liquid should be mostly absorbed when done with some nice thick gravy left with the rice. or it might all get absorbed.


*Note one... Mom used to use all Cream of Mushroom Soup with this recipe. Then somewhere along the way she switched to using Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Celery and Cream of Chicken. Or sometimes she would use all Cream of Chicken. I was not a big fan of the second combination, but try it, you may like it. Cream of Chicken was okay.. Cream of Mushroom is my all time favorite.

**Note Two, you can skip the whole process of browning the chicken and just put the raw pieces of chicken in with the rice. I would put paprika, dry parsley, or something on top of the chicken to give it color though, otherwise it kinda has this white/gray appearance and, although it is still very delicious, it is not very appealing to the eye! I would also add the salt to the rice and just place pepper on top of the chicken with the other herbs of choice, otherwise, any salt product on the raw chicken without searing it first, will pull out the juices, and even though you are steaming, it will leave you with a semi - dry tasting chicken.