What would be the best possible thing I an make with the following items???

Question

My kitchen contains the following:
chicken breast (boneless, skinless)
broth
various canned tomato products
carrots
celery
sweet potatoes
shallots
green and red bell peppers
garlic
wild & brown rice
pearled barley
quinoa
canned tomatoes and sauce

I also have various baking products, spices, oils, etc.

What is the best thing to whip up and use some of the items above?

Answer 1

How about a poached chicken with vegetables served over wild or brown rice?

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch slices
3 ribs celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small to medium onion, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
4 sprigs fresh thyme
6 cups chicken broth (if you don't have enough, just supplement with 1 cup water & 1 chicken bouillon for each cup)
1 cup brown or wild rice
10 blades chives, snipped or chopped, garnish
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Season chicken breasts with salt and arrange in a deep, large skillet. Cover chicken with vegetables. Add bay leaf, thyme sprigs, and chicken stock to the pan. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, covered. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Remove bay and thyme sprigs. Remove the chicken breasts and cut into slices. Return chicken slices to the pan and adjust seasoning, to your taste. Put on low heat to keep warm.

Cook your rice in 1 cup of broth from the pan, or cook it in chicken broth or water, to prepare it in advance, so that your chicken doesn't have to wait for the rice.

Put the rice into a serving bowl, top with chicken and vegetables. Cover meat and vegetables with some broth. Garnish each serving with chives and parsley.
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You can make a CHICKEN CACCIATORE over rice. Just substitute your chicken breasts for the whole chicken and your shallots for the onions:

1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika

1 chicken, cut in serving pieces, dredged in flour mixture
1/4 - 1/3 c. olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, sliced or chopped
1 green pepper, sliced or chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, sliced or crushed
2-3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2-3 celery ribs, sliced
2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. salt

After chicken is coated with the flour mixture, brown in hot oil and add the remaining ingredients. Simmer together until the chicken is done.
If needed, use the left-over flour mixture to thicken the sauce.

Serve over hot cooked rice.

For a variation you can cut the chicken into bite sized pieces before you start.
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A CREOLE CHICKEN & RICE:

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cooked rice
2 cups cooked diced chicken
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 can (14.5 ounces) tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
PREPARATION:
Put cooked rice in a buttered 2 1/2-quart casserole. Place chicken over the rice. Heat butter in a skillet; sauté onion, green pepper, and celery until tender. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper; simmer for 10 minutes.
Pour sauce over chicken and rice. Cover and bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes.
Serves 4 to 6.

Here's a nice MASHED SWEET POTATO recipe:

Mashed Sweet Potatoes:
2 pounds sweet potatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cane or maple syrup
Pinch salt and pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet and bake until tender and begins to ooze sugary syrup, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle.

Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh with a spoon into a large bowl. Add the cream, sugar, butter, syrup, salt and pepper, and thyme, if using and mix, mashing until the potato mixture is smooth. Cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

I love BAKED SWEET POTATOES served with lots of butter and topped with cinnamon & brown sugar. Yummy!
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You can also make a great CHICKEN & RICE OR BARLEY SOUP using your chicken, shallots, carrots, celery, garlic, and chicken broth.
The spices I like to use are some salt & pepper, a little thyme, and lots of oregano. I know oregano sounds weird but it's WONDERFUL in chicken soup. Using chicken breasts, I'd make the stock first and cook it for about half an hour, add pieces of pan browned chicken or just toss it in raw, add the rice or barley or combo and cook it for another 45 mins or so. Add more chicken bouillon and water if you don't have enough chicken broth.

Polly

Answer 2

I personally love chicken soup with barley in it instead of noodles. Cut up and brown some of the chicken breast, add water, and make soup. Throw the barley in along with any of your favorite veggies. I don't know what quinoa is, so it may be good in chicken soup, but I'd definitely use some of the celery, carrots, shallots, garlic, salt, pepper, and any other spices you like. A dash of paprika usually works wonders on anything with chicken in it; it makes a great 'secret ingredient' for any chicken dish. Slice a pepper and serve that as a salad with your soup.


As to cooking times, everything else will definitely be thoroughly cooked if you follow the guidelines for the barley. I think that's your slowest-cooking item on my list. If you have any cornstarch or potato starch, use a little bit in your soup to make it just a little less watery.

Answer 3

You can make sweet potato risotto (saute sweet potatoes, cut in small cubelets, until soft, also saute some garlic and onion but DON'T brown them.) Put in the brown rice or quinoa, put in some broth, make kind of a risotto/pilaf sorta thing (it won't be exactly like regular risotto, but it'll be good.)

I love escabeche--saute shallots (regular onions, too, if you have them) and some garlic. Pour in broth, bring it to a boil, then a simmer, and poach chicken in the broth until done. It's not quite authentic Yucatecan food, but it should be good. It's rather like a French onion soup with chicken in it. Put some pepper slices on top and serve with a starch (corn tortillas are best, but if you don't want to run get some or make them, go with a scoop of starch in or beside the escabeche.)

You could make a warm salad or soup with carrots, peppers, shallots, garlic, celery--sauteed--add starch, dry, for a salad. Add starch, broth, and some tomato products for a soup. Maybe some tomatoes and some sauce. Good peasant food. I'd put in cooked barley.

You have lots of options. Lucky! I'd have to go shopping for quite a few things to be that well-stocked in my kitchen.

Answer 4

Don't know what you are going to end up making, but I'll be there in time for supper.

If it were warmer outside, I would suggested making chicken ke-bobs (chicken, peppers, shallot sections) with a sauce made using some of the garlic and tomato producs, served on the wild rice

Answer 5

You could slice your chicken breasts into small strips, saute in some oil & spices- then...saute your veggies (celery, shallots, green & red bell peppers- you may want to steam your carrots a bit before adding them) in some oil & garlic or even in a tiny bit of oil, add salt & pepper and keep juicy with your broth, add cooked chicken and serve over the brown or wild rice...

Answer 6

make a batch of rice. chop up the chicken into cubes and brown in the oil. chop up the green and red peppers, a clove or 2 of garlic, carrots and the shallots. when the chicken is nice and brown, mostly done, add the veggies and enough broth to steam until all is done, not to make soup. season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar if you have it. serve over the rice. it's great if you've got soy sauce to go on top. it's kind of a stir-fry dish.

Answer 7

Soup or chicken with tomatoes, garlic, and green pepper. Serve with wild rice with bits of shallot, celery, and carrot. Do you deliver?

Answer 8

Chicken soup, chicken and rice casserole, baked chicken with sweet potatoes, chicken stew--I think I have even seen a chicken stew make with sweet potatoes.

Answer 9

Chicken chili or a marinara pops to mind.

Answer 10

Sounds like a super soup combo...especially since it's still dead winter here.....save me some.