One Pot Chicken and Rice

1 1/2 cups raw rice
1 cup water
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup melted oleo (margarine or butter)
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. dry onion soup mix
8 - 10 pieces of chicken
1/2 cup slivered almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Lightly grease a shallow 3 qt. baking dish.  Sprinkle rice and 1 cup of water over the bottom.  Combine soups, oleo, 1/4 cup water and dry soup mix.  Pour half soup mixture on top of rice.  Place chicken in one layer, skin side up on top of rice.  Pour remaining soup mixture over chicken.  Sprinkle with almonds.  Cover and bake 2 1/2 hrs.  To brown chicken, uncover last 20 minutes and bake at 400 degrees.  Yield: 6 - 8 servings.

Martha:  This recipe came from a cookbook with no name.  It's a spiral paperback that is very poorly put together and there is a hand written date of Jan. 1983 on the top of the 1st page.  It may be in poor condition but the recipes inside aren't.  I made very little change in making this dish.  I used a 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray and instead of white rice I used a wild rice blend that I find at Harris Teeter and love dearly.  I also used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts which I cut down the center creating 6 pieces.  And of course I used butter instead of the oleo (not sure you can even find that anymore).  I must say that this dish is one of the best I've had, especially the rice combined with the soup.  I could make this and completely leave out the chicken!  It's that good.  Or you could cook the chicken, chunk it up and just mix it in with the soups creating a casserole.  No matter how you make this, I really feel that you'll love it as much as I do.  The rice blend has a nutty taste and the almonds give it a slight crunch.  Sooooo good!

Chicken Steak & Gravy

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1/2 cup flour for dredge
1 tsp. dried onions
1/2 cup milk
Olive oil

Heat olive oil on med. heat.  In a shallow bowl mix flour and dried onions.  Pour milk into another shallow bowl.  Slice chicken through the thickness creating 2 thin 'steaks.'  Dip chicken in milk and then into flour/onions.  Fry slowly, browning on both sides, until done.  Remove from pan and keep warm.  If needed, pour off any olive oil left in pan after chicken has cooked.  Add dried onion soup mix and mushroom soup.  Stir until blended to make a gravy.  If it becomes too thick, add enough milk to create the thickness you want. If it's too thin, mix a Tbsp. of flour with 1/4 cup water and add to gravy.  Serve over chicken. Serves 3-4

Martha:  While looking through one of the vintage cookbooks my beautiful sister Lillian sent to me.  I ran across a recipe for Cubed Steak which, of course, used cubed steak.  I'm not much of a beef eater anymore but the recipe did sound good as well as simple.  So, I decided to Think With My Taste Buds and decided this would be good using chicken too.  And it is!  The flavor of the gravy was so good that I could have eaten it by the spoonfuls.  I did use my rice flour for battering the chicken but I can't call this one gluten free because the mushroom soup does have wheat flour as an ingredient.  This is a must try dish for chicken or beef or even beef.

Rice Flour Fried Chicken

6 Thin Sliced Chicken Breasts (1/2 - 3/4" thick)
1/2 cup Rice Flour
1/4 cup French Fried Onions, crushed
1 Tbsp. McCormick Roasted Garlic Montreal Chicken Seasoning
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small can mushrooms, drained
1 cup Mozzarella & Provolone Blend Shredded Cheese


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a shallow bowl combine flour, crushed onions, seasoning and pepper.  Pour milk into a 2nd shallow bowl.  Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat.  Dip chicken in milk, then into flour mixture.  Place chicken in hot oil.  Cook on one side until slightly browned, turn and cook other side.  Place browned chicken in a 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake in oven until completely done.  Evenly top with mushrooms.  Evenly sprinkle cheese over mushrooms.  Bake another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Martha:  I kind of started making this dish up as I went alone.  I'm still trying to go gluten free so I bought the rice flour and decided to give it a try for making fried chicken.  While looking in the pantry I noticed I had about 1/4 cup of French Fried Onions that needed to be used so I added them to the rice flour.  I took a good 'smell' of the McCormick Roasted Garlic seasoning and knew it would be a great addition.  The mushrooms sounded good too and of course the cheese blend.  I served this with slaw and a delicious wild rice making my meal complete.  Now, as much as I would like to I couldn't eat all 6 slices so I shared with some of my food testers.  They all had the same comment... "This is the best chicken I've ever eaten!"  And it is.  This dish was a total Think With Your Taste Buds dish.

The rice flour... I totally recommend it for frying.  It makes a beautiful, crisp crust.  Try it, I bet you'll like it too.  Now I want to find other uses for this newest find.