I love it when I can whip up a dinner with pantry staples that are neither planned for nor fancy. Okay, to be honest, I like fancypants ingredients but most of the time I like to simply open the pantry, grab what I find and cook it into something palatable. That’s what I do almost every day and things haven’t been turning too shabby.
Take for example this casserole dish. I already had onions, garlic, rice, and leftover kale. I made a short trip to the store and bought some chicken.
Things came about quite naturally as I sauteed the onion, garlic, kale, and chicken, combined them with rice and broth, and popped the pan into a hot oven! It was (almost) effortless and our hearty dinner may well become a weeknight go-to quickie.
CHICKEN, WILD RICE AND KALE CASSEROLE RECIPE
Prep Time: 10 MIN
Cook Time: 1 HOUR 15 MIN
Ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups wild rice blend (or brown rice)
- 1 small onion
- 1 large garlic clove
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 small bunch of kale, chopped
- Salt and ground pepper, to taste
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken (breast or thigh), cut into bite-size
- 2 3/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Place the oven rack in the middle.
Step 2: Place the rice in a deep 8×10 baking dish. Set aside.
Step 3: Grind the onion and garlic in a food processor or grate them using a box grater.
Step 4: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onion and garlic for 3 minutes.
Step 5: Add the chopped kale and sauté it until lightly wilted 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the baking dish.
Step 6: Season the chicken with salt and pepper and sauté (in the same pan used for the kale) until lightly golden all around, 5 minutes. Add the chicken to the rice and kale in the baking pan.
Step 7: Add the chicken broth. Cover tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes (60 minutes for brown rice). Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Let cool a bit before serving.
