Creamy Santa Fe Chicken and Rice

Submitted by reubenbehm

"Really healthy recipe that tastes like it isn't!!! This is actually a variation of someone else's on this site. I'm on a diet where I'm trying to eat higher protein meals regularly throughout the day and this is perfect for an after work dinner that will be satisfying without breaking any rules. A portion of 1/6 of the pan, which is very satisfying, only has about 415 calories and packs 30 grams of protein!!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 236.59 ml fat-free cottage cheese
• 118.29 ml fat free plain Greek yogurt
• 1064.65 ml low sodium chicken broth
• 4.92 ml salt
• 2.46 ml garlic powder
• 88.74 ml taco seasoning (or to your preference)
• 113.39 g can green chilies (optional)
• 113.39 g can sliced black olives (optional)
• 793.78 g can diced tomatoes, drained (reserve juices for rice)
• 432.33 g can sweet corn (optional)
• 680.38 g cooked chicken, diced large
• 473.18 ml rice (cooked in chicken broth or tomato juice)

directions

1. Cook rice according to package, but instead of water, cook the rice in an equal amount of chicken broth plus the reserved tomato juice. (So, for example, if the rice package calls for to 4 cups of water, and you have 1 cup of reserved tomato juice, you will cook the rice in the tomato juice plus 3 cups of chicken broth instead of the water.).
2. While the rice is cooking, mix together the chilies, olives, tomatoes, corn, and cooked chicken in a large bowl.
3. Blend cottage cheese, greek yogurt, 1 cup of the chicken broth, salt, garlic powder, and taco seasoning until smooth.
4. When the rice is done, fold it into the chicken mixture. Then stir in the cottage cheese/greek yogurt mixture.
5. Bake at 350 for about 45 min or until it seems to hold together nicely.

Reviews

[whtbxrmom]

I made this and baked it up in a 9 x 13 pan. It turned out pretty good but felt it could have used a little more flavor. My family suggested adding black beans, cumin, more garlic and maybe a sprinkle of shredded cheese on top.

 

[anniesnomsblog]

This was really tasty and definitely tasted like it had way more calories than it actually has! I used a paprika based taco seasoning, hence mine being quite red, but it's all I could find in my supermarket! I don't normally love cottage cheese, but because of all the other flavours going on I didn't notice it much; in fact it just added a nice flavour. Will definitely make this again!

 

[BChandler]

Good recipe. I used brown rice and had to sub mushrooms for the olives cause they had gone bad. Otherwise it was the same but I think you could sneak in other veggies in this recipe without the kids noticing too much..That's a plus. I think next time I will do a little bit more rice. I did 1 cup dry brown rice and perhaps next time I'll do 1 1/2 cups. We'll see I just would have liked more rice for my taste.

 

[Sydney Mike]

Made this recipe as given & baked it in a 13"x9" baking dish! Delicious when it came out of the oven, & I'll admit that most of it didn't make it to our table, but that's because it was part of my one-time contribution to the meals that a group I know distributes to the homeless! Thanks for sharing the recipe! [Made & reviewed for one of my adoptees in this fall's round of Pick A Chef]

 

[PaulaG]

Initially I posted a comment in lieu of a star rating as I felt that I had misinterrupted the ingredients list. Tonight I added a can of Rotel tomatoes, mixed half the cottage cheese and yogurt along with some chicken stock. The dish was baked again and it was much closer to what I had anticipated. I believe the ingredients list intended for 1 cup of rice to be cooked in the stock with the tomato juice. Made for PAC Fall 2011.