For the love of a good left over...

Sometimes meal planning looks like this – chicken, rice-a-roni, and vegetables. Great. Sure… but we just had baked chicken and I’m not so much into grilling. I wondered if there were any casseroles online with chicken and rice-a-roni. There sure were… with loads of cream of something soup in them. Sure… that’s fine – but I was looking for something less… creamy. If I make creamy that’s what I hear… “It’s fine but it’s too creamy”, even if it isn’t. I found this one which is basically what I wanted – rice-a-roni and chicken on top! Perfect! We all enjoyed it and it worked out great. The ingredients are really simple and nothing is creamy. We microwaved up a steamer bag of corn, whipped up some biscuits and dinner was served. This one made some leftovers which are really nice, it will certainly be a winning on leftover night.

Rice-A-Roni Chicken Bake

Ingredients
4 quarters or 8 chicken legs
1 box Rice-a-Roni, chicken flavor
1/4 cup white rice or long grain
1 2/3 cup water

Seasoning (for the chicken):
1 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
2 tsps garlic powder
1 tsp Salt
2 tsps Paprika

Instructions
Mix seasonings together and sprinkle over chicken. You can leave skin on chicken and remove after cooking or go skinless. Just make sure to season well, before baking.
Preheat oven to 350. Mix 1/4 cup white rice to packaged rice a roni vermicelli/rice mixture and pour into a 13 x 9 roasting pan. Spread rice around to coat bottom of pan. Microwave water till near boil. Add rice a roni seasoning and pour over rice.
Place seasoned chicken onto rice, spread out from each other by a few inches or so. Cover with tin foil and seal tightly. Place pan in oven and let bake for 1 hour (depending on size of chicken, you might have to go 1 1/2 hours). Remove cover and baked an additional 10 -20 mins or until chicken looks nice and brown. Serve hot with a salad or fresh garden veggies and dip.