Rice Cooker: Chicken and Rice

The Chicken and Rice dish has millions of recipes (maybe I am exaggerating) but anyway has many recipes. Mine is different, of course, and I am asking you to try it. This recipes does not require a rice cooker if you are an expert cooking rice without the modern age rice cooker that makes everything so easy. I make my chicken and rice dish using a rice cooker, otherwise I would not be able to eat rice at all. I added some vegetables together with rice and chicken and came out delicious every time. Even my teenage daughter likes it!

Ingredients: 

• 2 chicken breast cut into 1' squares (cubes)
• 1 cup Mahatma white enriched long grain rice
• 2 medium size carrots coarsely chopped
• 2-3 stalks celery coarsely chopped
• 1 small can sweet peas
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth (I like my rice moist -- you use as much as normally use for cooking rice)

Preparation: I brown the chicken pieces before I put them into the rice. You don't have to. Now this is the hard part with the rice cooker: drop everything in the rice cooker, close the lid and choose cooking level for white rice. Immediately start watching a movie or something on TV or even go to the movies. The rice cooker will take care of the rest. If you don't have a rice cooker ... good luck! I don't know how to cook rice. But I guess that you start cooking the rice, then cook the chicken pieces and then at some point mix everything together and keep simmering till is all done. Enjoy!

Romania: Garlic Dip for Roasted or Grilled Chicken

Romanian cuisine uses a lot of garlic and onion in most recipes. Garlic is well known for its properties in lowering and controlling somewhat the blood pressure. Nevertheless, prepared properly can enhance the food and makes it even tastier, believed or not. This particular dip however uses garlic in its natural state, uncooked, and it is most useful with roasted, baked or grilled chicken. Just try it at least once.

Ingredients: One whole garlic, 2 tsp salt. 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, mayo (optional)

Procedure: Peel the garlic in the method you will find best. Also you might wand to purchase peeled garlic at your local grocery store. Fill a wooden mortar about halfway with garlic cloves and add the salt. Press the garlic with a wooden pestle (I use wooden utensils as much as I can) until becomes like a paste. Add the olive oil and mix well. Add water and mix well again without spilling. Pour everything in a small bowl, add more water and mix well. Water will cut down the "strength" of the garlic so you need to add as much or as less water as you feel. That's it. Dip pieces of cooked chicken and enjoy.

You might want to do another batch and coat the chicken with it before it is cooked and also for basting while the chicken is cooking on the grill or in the oven. Discard leftover, do not use the same batch for dipping. 

You might want to add a little mayo to make it cling to the chicken but that will be your option. Try it and find the best way to fit your taste. 

Austria: Viennese Schnitzel

The Viennese Schnitzel it is a dish that is fairly easy to cook. Cooking time is about 30 minutes. The original recipe calls for lamb meat but since lamb is quite expensive I use skinless chicken breast. I cut the skinless chicken breast in thin slices no more than 1/4 inch thick. Feel free to use any kind of meat for this recipe: lamb, skinless turkey breast, skinless chicken breast, sliced in thin layers. This recipe is made with chicken.

Ingredients: Skinless chicken breast, 2-3 tbls of fresh lemon juice, 1 cup flour, 2-3 large eggs, breadcrumbs (either Italian style or plain), your favorite cooking oil, lemon wedges, fresh parsley.

Procedure:  Wash and trim the chicken breast of any fat. Cut in thin slice no more than 1/4 inch thick. Slightly tenderize with the kitchen knife handle or a tenderizer utensil you have. Place the chicken in a medium size bowl. Mix enough water with the lemon juice just enough to cover the chicken. Slightly mix the chicken with a wooden spoon just to make sure all pieces are soak in this water and lemon juice mixture. Set aside. In a deep dish beat two of the eggs with one or two tbls of water like you are to do an omelet. Set aside. Pour the flour and the bread crumbs in two different plates (I use paper plates for this purpose). Set a large frying pan on the stove at medium heat and pour about 2-3 tbls of your favorite cooking oil. Take one chicken slice at the time and run them through flour (making sure the flour covers well the entire slice), then dip it to the eggs on both sides. Withe a fork keep the slice upright to allow the excess egg to drip back into the plate then place it into the bread crumbs on both sides. Transfer the breaded slice into the frying pan. Cook it on both sides till golden brown. Because the chicken is so thin it does not take long to be cooked so you have to watch it carefully. While the first slice is cooking repeat the procedure with the next slice. When you place it in the frying pan, check the previous slice for donness. Repeat this procedure with all remaining slices. Place cooked slice in a large bowl padded wit a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. You might have to change the oil in the frying pan during cooking due to burned bread crumbs that are deposited during cooking. Use your cook common sense.

I serve the Viennese Schnitzel with mashed potatoes and green salad (like baby spinach or romaine letuce) and if you like add a gravy of your choice.

I hope you will enjoy this dish as much as I and my teenage daughter do. See you next time for more home cooking recipes from arround the world.