Improvisation

When it comes to cooking, I'm all about improv.  I rarely follow a recipe exactly.  Sometimes there's something in it that I don't like or I don't have.  At other times, I just don't remember what was supposed to go in the dish.  I was reminded of this as I prepared to make one of my favorite meals the other night, chicken and rice.

Unfortunately, I was out of chicken, but with an abundance of pork in the freezer (well it is the "other" white meat) I got to work on supper.  To my surprise, I found out that I was almost out of the chicken flavored rice that I had planned on using.  I had one package but I needed two.  This was a conundrum.  I rustled through my cabinets to see what I could find, knowing that one package of rice was not enough.  I found that I had a box of Spanish rice, where the flavoring was separate from the rice.  I used that (while saving the flavor, which I will add to some delicious chicken tacos sometime).

I added some chicken bouillon cubes for some more flavor, and the meal turned out pretty well.  Especially considering that I was missing several key ingredients.

To fix the same meal, cook the meat (I did it in my dutch oven).  My pork was already cooked and just had to thaw out.  I put it in the dutch oven with water until it was hot.  I then added the rise and corn, letting both cook until they were soft.  I added salt, pepper, and lots of parsley.  Keep stirring as the dish cooks so the rice doesn't stick.  In about twenty to thirty minutes you'll have a delicious rice meal.  Enjoy!