(Curried) Chicken Tremendous Rice

"Is this chicken, what I have, or is this Fish? I know it's tuna, but it says 'Chicken of the Sea'." 

-Jessica Simpson

My mom has a repertoire with some fantastic recipes. There are a ton of them that I remember vividly for a multitude of reasons, whether they were amazing (this one), or ones that I didn't care for (I'm looking at you, weird sauerkraut pork chop thing). From time to time, I'm going to be sharing some recipes from my family's vault, and I figured it'd be a great way to start with one that I made some interesting changes to.



When I moved off of campus at VT and into a townhouse, my mom sent me two amazing housewarming gifts. One was the cast iron that I will use until I die, and the other was the magic box of recipes. See below:

It's like a little treasure chest of love.

So, there are many different, fantastic things in this little box. There are grandma's old chicken wings, there are breakfast casseroles, there are apple pancakes, and, lo and behold, there is chicken tremendous rice.

Hello, beautiful.

In my family, we all have different cooking styles. I don't really cook like my mom or sister, who don't cook like me or each other. We have all sort of become independent cooks. Which is pretty great when trading recipes. But in this case, we have all agreed that this is a family favorite. My sister and I would email our mom every few months to try to remember the recipe (because apparently searching the inbox was too difficult).

This is a recipe that can be made in one pot. Hot diggety damn. I prefer mixing in a bowl and pouring into a casserole dish, but hey, if you want to live dangerously, I'm not going to stop you. You can also sub any cut of chicken, but I prefer either leg cuts (pictured), or boneless skinless thighs. It'll stay ridiculously juicy, and do a great job of sucking up all the flavor.

If you squint hard enough, you can tell that my recipe is different from the card my mom gave me. I've made some changes to this that I have taken kindly to. If you don't like what I do (jerk), then omit the curry and extra spices, and you'll have the original. It's not tough. This is a great recipe to change to your tastes. In any case, you're going to need the following:

"Oh, so this is going to be one of THOSE blogs." Yes, it is. Shut up.

• 1 package (8+ thighs) boneless/skinless thighs (or sub whatever chicken you'd like)
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup, diluted per instructions on can
• 1 cup uncooked white rice (if you want more rice, add more liquid!)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 package onion soup mix (Lipton's great; the same stuff you use to make onion dip.)
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder

Let's start this thing off by preheating that oven of yours. I know it's scary, I know you always fear if you've left it on after starting your vacation, but it is not terrifying. Seriously, stop looking at me like that. It's an oven, not the space shuttle. Crank that bad boy to 350F, and make sure your rack is in the middle of the thing.

Personally, I did this with a mixing bowl. But Average Coooook, you said this was a one-pot meal! Okay, yeah, I did. you could theoretically mix this whole thing up in your baking dish, but it just seems silly to me, and all you'd have to do is rinse out ONE mixing bowl. Come on. It's your call, and I'm not going to stop you, but just think this through. You're a big kid.

Anyway, put everything except the chicken into the bowl, and mix it until it's one sort of disgusting-looking almost-homogenous psuedoliquid. It's going to look like this:

That's funny. this looks like the opposite of delicious.

Yes, it looks gross. Don't care. It's going to bake up into a delicious mix of chicken-y goodness and crispy rice and soft rice and other tasty things. Anyway, plop that whole mix into a baking dish. I recommend using a 9x13", and greasing that puppy up first, so no crispy rice becomes permanently affixed to your fine dishware. Be warned.

Once that's all poured in, you can plop your chicken on top of the rice. Crowd that thing as much as you'd like. I can usually fit in 8+ thighs, and this time, I used leg cuts, which made it look a little more casserole-esque in appearance. Either way, tasty tasty.

Raw meat and gross pudding, my favorite!

Once you sock that thing in the oven (you did remember to preheat, right? Please tell me you read that first step and didn't think 'Oh yeah, I'll get to it, I guess!'), you get to wait one hour. During that hour, you could do a multitude of things. You could clean your kitchen in advance (who does that?), you could go watch Hulu/Netflix (anyone else disappointed by Mulaney?), or even go listen to the song I've had on repeat the whole time while writing this darned thing. It's smooth. Or, you could just stand there and drool, staring through that tiny, ineffective window that they place on ovens for some reason.

Okay, so, an hour's up? Rad. Pull that sucker out. WAIT NO DON'T PUT YOUR FACE IN IT OH GOD WHYYYY? Seriously, this thing is going to be hot. Don't touch it. Really. Stop it. Stop putting your finger closer. Cut it out. NO. Okay, wait around 10 minutes, and you're good to dish it out. It's not going to look the best, but it's going to be delicious.

You. My Belly. NOW.

I'm not going to show you my photo of it on a plate, because I don't understand how to photograph food, and apparently I can't get anything short of a blurry, wet-looking chicken mess. So you're just going to have to use your imaginations with the above photo, and just take a chunk to a plate. Easy? Yeah.

The flavor on this is great. The onion soup and cream of chicken add a fantastic flavor mix to the rice, making it a creamy, thick side for the chicken. Some of the rice also gets crispy, which has been often described as "divine", and satisfies most cravings when served. The curry powder adds a brilliant yellow color, and a tasty, spice-filled flavor profile to go along with it. I love this, and it's a regular dish in the house. If I know I'm going to need something easy, this is one of my favorites. All the ingredients (minus the chicken) should already be in your pantry, good to go! This is easily accompanied by broccoli or a salad. Be careful to not eat the whole pan in one sitting; Lord knows I've tried. It reheats well, and sometimes I actually think it's better the second day.

Enjoy! -AC

(Curried) Chicken Tremendous Rice

Recipe from Scott McDonald (Average Cook)

Serves 4 adults, or one very large adult who should see his doctor.

• 1 package (8+ thighs) boneless/skinless thighs
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup, diluted per instructions on can
• 1 cup uncooked white rice 
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 package onion soup mix
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Place all ingredients (except chicken) in a bowl and mix. Add to greased 9x13" baking dish. Place chicken on top of rice mixture, and bake for 1 hour. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Curry, chili powder, and garlic can be omitted for a more standard version.