African Chicken from the Pantry

This recipe is from "100 Day Pantry", more or less. It can be made using pantry-only ingredients or fresh celery and onion can be used. It passed the taste test of my gourmet sister. :o) It is surprisingly filling, rich and satisfying.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Serves: 5

Ingredients

• 16 -28  ounces  unsalted chicken stock
• 1⁄2 cup  extra-crunchy peanut butter
• 1 (10 ounce) can chicken, undrained (up to 15 oz. can)
• 1⁄4 cup  dried celery (or one bay leaf)
• 1  cup  dried onion
• 1  cup quick-cooking rice
•  cayenne pepper (optional)
•  Tabasco sauce (optional)
•  bell pepper (optional, 1/2 c. dried)

Directions

1. NOTE: You can use 1 large onion and 3 stalks celery instead of the dried. The bell pepper would be replaced with 1 red and 1 green. Just saute/steam them in 1 T.oil and water as necessary to get the onion translucent and the celery able to be broken by a spoon, but not mushy). You would then use this pot and ingredients for the rest of the recipe.
2. Pour the broth into a large pot. Add peanut buttter, chicken, celery (or bay leaf), onion, and bell pepper if using. Bring to a boil, whisking with a wire whisk to break up peanut butter. Remove from heat. Stir in rice and let sit 5 - 10 minutes. This gets thicker the longer it sits.
3. For heat lovers, top with cayenne pepper and tabasco. Non-heat lovers might want to add about 1/4 t. vinegar to help cut the richness. (However, I didn't try that.).