If you have been following me from the start (or maybe if you found me later but went back and read all my posts), you may remember that my tried and true go-to meal is my mother-in-law's pork chops and rice recipe. I wrote about it for my very first blog post, here. We love this recipe, and I always, always have the ingredients on hand (pork chops in the freezer; tomatoes, rice, and onion in the pantry; spices in the cupboard). Except, apparently, when I don't.
Last week was just insane. We had been traveling and work was unusually busy for me. Either one of those things are enough to throw off our daily juggle, but the two combined was just about enough to send me over the edge. And this is why I have a go-to meal in the first place - so that when I hardly have a minute to think, at least I don't have to think about dinner.
But of course, somehow I had no pork chops in the freezer. Grrr! That never happens to me. I am usually downright religious about restocking them when I use them, so I was literally throwing things around the freezer drawers and muttering to myself when I came across a bunch of frozen chicken thighs. Ding ding ding! Idea! Could I substitute the pork chops for chicken thighs?
Yes, I can!
It came out perfectly. I didn't change a thing other than that one substitution, and it was so good that I'm not sure which way I like it more. Here's the recipe, copied from my first blog post and updated to include the chicken instead of the pork.
10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (note: if you have these in your freezer and they are wrapped in the butcher paper from your market, do not assume that all things in your freezer wrapped in butcher paper are chicken thighs. I suggest you actually label them. Otherwise, you might accidentally defrost shrimp shells that you were saving to make seafood stock. Oops)
1 large sweet onion (suggest vidalia if you can get them), diced
1 cup long grain rice (don't go all healthy on us and try to substitute brown rice; won't work)
28 0z can Muir Glen organic diced tomatoes
28 0z can Muir Glen organic crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2/3 cup water
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Brown both sides quickly over high heat, set in the bottom of large casserole dish. Sprinkle onion over chicken. (Is your family weird about texture like mine sometimes is? If so, leave out the onion and it will still be yummy.) Measure rice into measuring cup, add salt, chili powder, and garlic powder. Stir to mix the spices together with the rice, and pour over chicken. Pour both cans of tomatoes over chicken and rice. Pour in water. Cook uncovered at 350 for 1 hour, 45 minutes. Dinner is ready when all the liquid is absorbed, rice is cooked and tomatoes have reduced down.
Happy eating!
