Cheddar Chicken and Rice Skillet

Cookinmomof3's Note:

This is such a great weeknight dinner and it tastes amazing!!! The mixture of chicken, fresh tomatoes, broccoli and italian dressing makes for a delicious dinner the whole family will love. You of course can make it with any vegetable on hand-I've even made it without the cheddar cheese and the taste is still great!!

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• ½ cup kraft zesty Italian dressing
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts , cut in pieces
• 2 cups white rice, uncooked or 2 cups brown rice
• 1 ¼ cups chicken broth
• 2 cups small broccoli florets
• 1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
• salt
• pepper , and
• garlic powder , to taste

Directions:

1. Heat italian dressing in large skillet over med high heat.
2. Add the chicken and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic to taste and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the rice, chicken broth and broccoli.
4. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes
5. Let stand covered for 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
6. Add the chopped tomatoes and cheddar cheese and stir until blended.
7. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder to your liking and ENJOY!

Reviews

[Chef AngieW]

This was tasty, however I thought it smelled a lot better while it was cooking than it tasted. I think I too would marinate the chicken. I also used 1 cup rice and 2 cups broth. I added the broccoli when the rice was almost done cooking. I cooked the rice for 20 minutes. I realized I didn't have any cheddar cheese so I used mozzarella.

[Modmom50]

The flavor of this dish is outstanding but I had to modify the directions in order for it to be edible. I realized that it was impossible to use uncooked rice and have it cooked completely in 10 minutes, plus the amount of liquid to rice was way out of whack so cut the rice to one cup and increased the chicken broth to 2 cups and increased the cooking time to 25 minutes and it was great. This was using white rice. If I had been using brown would have had to increase cooking time to 45 minutes. All in all this is a great and easy recipe to prepare and it will tolerate other veggies as I was out of broccoli so ended up using peas and carrots.

[Ash&AvesMomy]

I wish I had read the suggestion from the other reviews before I made this, but I was in a hurry and didn't have the time. I used all two cups of rice and it was way too much. I think 1 cup would have worked out great. I also used 2 cups of chicken broth, and didn't have any more. This wasn't near enough liquid. To make up for that, I used water and Knorr Caldo de Tamate bullion (maybe 2 or 3 TBS?) I lost track of how much water I had to add, but I think it was about 3 or 4 cups. I did't have any tomatos but the bullion gave it a bit of tomato flavor. I added a bit of worsteshire sauce to the italian dressing and added onions with the chicked. I also used a frozen mixture of season broccoli and carrots. When I make this again, I will cut back on the rice and probably still add some water and Caldo de Tomate. I live at a high altitute and think I need a little extra liquid. With all that extra rice, it took 45 minutes to an hour to cook. Because I had to keep taking off the lid and stiring in more water, my rice ended up a little mushy, but the flavor was great! Recipe just needs a couple of tweaks.