No Peek Chicken (I totally should have peaked!)

I got a recipe from a friend yesterday for dinner. It sounded delicious so I thought I should definitely try it. PLUS (bonus item) I had all the ingredients which is amazing given it was two days before grocery shopping. So here is the recipe...

You take about 4-5 chicken breasts, season to taste and set aside. Then mix together 2 cups of rice, one can cream of mushroom soup, one can of cream of celery or chicken (doesn’t matter) and ½ soup can of milk and a half pouch of dry onion soup mix (do not add water to the mix) put it all in the bottom of a well greased 13x9 baking dish, put the chicken on top and pour the rest of the onion soup mix over the chicken (the onion soup mix is KEY to the recipe). Cover with tin foil .Bake for about 2 hrs or until chicken is done.

Sounds good doesn't it! So there were some spots where I did get slightly confused.

Like ... one can cream of mushroom soup, one can of cream of celery or chicken ... I wasn't sure if this meant I should add one can of cream of mushroom soup WITH on can of either cream of celery or cream of chicken OR if I could just use one can of any of the three. But did I bother to ask? Not a chance. I'm an experienced cook, I knew what to do. Just one can...definitely just one can....

Also notice there wasn't a temp to cook at. Well I did ask, she said 350 and so I decided if I did it at 375 it would cook faster! (Experienced cook talking here)

So I whip it all together and throw it in the oven.

Now here is what you need to know about me and rice. We don't get along ... at all. Not even a little bit. My rice is usually watery, hard and slightly undercooked and/or burnt to the bottom of the pan. Over the years I have learned to master minute rice BUT this recipe did not say anything about minute rice, so I used regular brown rice.

So dinner came around and ok...I totally peeked a couple time to make sure everything was going ok and to check on the rice. I checked after an hour, rice still hard. I checked after an hour and a half, rice Still hard. I checked after two hours and the damn rice was STILL hard. And lucky for me, so was the freaking chicken. ARG!!!

So I pulled the dang meal out of the freaking stove and served it up. It was kinda like a crispy rice/dried up chicken type of meal.

Here's the best part.... my kids loved it! While my husband and I are all,

"Do you want the rest of my chicken?"

and

"Oh no, you eat that chicken, I don't want you to be hungry."

and

"Maybe you should give me a little extra corn."

My kids are all,

"Daddy I'll eat your rice!"

and

"Is there any more chicken!"

Seriously! I give these kids beef stew (cooked perfectly...not rice like) and they won't touch it. Chili takes at least an hour to choke down two bites. But burnt dried out chicken and burnt undercooked rice is like the best meal they've had all year!

Needless to say, I'm still hungry.

So as an experienced cook I came to a few conclusions...

1. I should have used two cans of cream soup.

2. I STILL can't cook rice.

and

3. If in doubt, ask for clarification on the recipe!!!

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