Grains of Rice and Salt

I have made my fair share of casseroles with crunchy rice. There's just a perfect way to make rice tender while also cooking chicken that I just can't seem to get right. When I read about parboiled rice I was intrigued! I was told this rice comes out perfect every time, I like perfect rice. This recipe - while in and out of the oven a bunch of times - turned out great. Andy would make some changes, but the kids and I enjoyed it. The recipe calls for coating the chicken with flour and spices. If you don't dump the rest of the coating on top of the chicken (which I did not), you will lack for salt. He also said the chicken felt pasty. Also - he had a cold, was stressed about school, and was generally cranky... so let's take his review with a grain of... salt. (See what I did there?) Add some salt to this one and it's delicious. Bronwyn declared it great and this girl LOVES her plain white rice. So there you go. Maybe I'll make it again (same way with extra salt) and see what Andy says this time... maybe he'll love it this time... maybe.

Chicken and Rice
4 Tablespoons butter
3 chicken breasts (1.5 pounds fresh chicken) cut into smaller pieces OR about 8 chicken tenders
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups parboiled rice
one small onion, finely diced
4 cups of chicken broth

1. Preheat the oven to 375 while simultaneously melting the butter in a 9x13 glass pan in the oven.
2. In a gallon bag, combine the flour, salt, seasoned salt and pepper. Put the chicken pieces into the bag and toss to coat.
3. Once the butter is melted, put the chicken pieces in a single layer in the baking dish. If there is extra flour in the bag just dust it over the baking dish.
4. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes
5. Remove from oven, take chicken out of the pan and set it aside. Add the broth, rice and onion to the pan. Put the chicken back into the pan right on top of the broth/rice mixture.
6. Cover with foil and bake another 30 minutes.
7. Remove the foil and bake for a final 15-20 minutes.