On a Chicken and Rice Mission

This week I made another attempt at baked chicken and rice. I've made some progress but still I am not satisfied with the results. A few years ago, before I became a pre-packaged food snob, I would buy the boxed "just add chicken" kit and follow the directions. It made for a decent chicken and rice dish, but nothing extraordinary. Now I am on a mission to get it right. I am convinced there's a way to get moist, flavorful chicken atop a bed of fluffy rice with just the right balance of seasoning.

So far my recipe attempts have taught me that most people either have flavorless and dry chicken & rice or they buy those dastardly kits. I am determined to not stoop back to that level.

I was flipping through an ad I received in the mail from Kroger recently, and noticed the recipes included were not really recipes so much as ways to cobble together a meal from frozen, pre-cooked boxed items. Just like those chicken & rice kits. Grumble Grumble Grumble...

It made me think about how much cooking and recipes rely on those heat & eat type foods. Just turn on Food Network and watch any number of shows. They aren't cooking, they're opening boxes and assembling; Semi-Homemade, 30 minute meals... They're all about getting the meal from box to table as rapidly as possible, tossing nutrition out the window. Now that we've got these pre-done meals to a reasonably tasty level, why make it from scratch? The boxed stuff is close enough for most kitchens, right?

But back to my mission to make a good chicken & rice dish, minus the boxed stuff and all the extra sodium and preservatives they so generously provide. I have made some progress in the right direction. I can finally product a moist piece of chicken from the oven. I can even get rice that is fairly fluffly and light. Now my battle is with the flavor.

I suspect my culprit is the broth. I am about to step even further away from the pre-packaged world and make my own, forgoing what I have thought to be good chicken base for the last couple of years. So to get a satisfying baked chicken & rice dish, I am forced to buy a whole chicken, roast it, use the leftovers to make stock, and then I can proceed to make my intended dish.

Or I can just go buy the $3 kit at Kroger. But I am stubborn, and will not be that easily disuaded from the chicken-y greatness that eludes me for now.

The Invention of Food

What is reinvented food exactly? A bit of background is necessary to properly answer that question.

My original concept with this blog came about from standing in my kitchen one evening, marveling at how I had just taken some leftover dish and turned it into something entirely different and equally enjoyable. As a fan of cooking, I can become engrossed in a cookbook like a love-starved woman swept away into the world of a romance novel. I truly enjoy cooking, even if its just a simple dinner for my husband and I. I'm not crazy or obsessive over it, I just enjoy the whole process, from purchase to consumption.

While reading one of those many food related books, I started thinking about the phrase "Food Reinvented" and realized that it covered so much more territory than reworking last night's chicken. I am reinventing how I view food. As a kid, I can recall numerous times asking my parents, "Why do we always have to get together with friends to eat? Why can't we do something instead?" What I didn't get at the time and that I came to understand later was how the food & eating it with friends to my parents was the doing something. As an adult, I grew to really like those food-centric gatherings and over time it would show in my expanding waistline. Eventually the reflection in the mirror screamed "STOP!" loudly enough I could no longer igorne it and I found a way to get my dietary habits in check. Now I enjoy the food, but in a more healthy, controlled manner.

So as you see, over time my view of food has changed. I strongly suspect I am not alone in this either. Thus I felt compelled to expand my plans with this blog.

Going back to my original question, what exactly is food reinvented? A mix of recipes, ideas, and concepts that all tie back to how we perceive or consume food. If that answer sounds a big vague, that's because I am leaving an open door for where this food journey will go. I'm not looking to be the next Rachel Ray or Dr. Oz, just to get my ideas out there and share them a bit with hopefully an audience who is willing to hear.