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Thursday, January 26, 2017

Adventures With Rice

Since I talked about my cooking win, it's only fair that I talk about my cooking...not loss because it didn't turn out badly, but it was a lesson. I wanted to say lesson learned, but this isn't the first time I've made a mistake like this so I have no hope that I've learned it this time either.

I have this slow cooker dish that I've made a few times--successfully! It's a riff on a stove top recipe that I really like. I call it Chicken Salsa Verde. What I do is put in about 4 pounds of chicken (usually a combination of breast and thigh meat), a can of chicken broth mixed with corn starch, and a jar or two of salsa verde. I cook on high for about 5.5 hours, then I add a can of sliced olives and cook for another half an hour. It's always turned out yummy.

This time, though, I had a brainstorm. Why don't I add rice to the slow cooker? That way, I can have my Chicken Salsa Verde with rice and not have to cook it on the stove. Brilliant, I decided.

At about the five hour mark this time, I added rice. I had it all figured out. I'd put in 3/4 of a cup of rice. It might be too much, but I wasn't sure half a cup would be enough. Only after I added the amount of rice I'd decided on, it didn't look like enough. I added another quarter cup. Hmm. It still didn't look like much. I added more. Without measuring.

Um, yeah.

When I came back an hour later, there was no sauce left in the slow cooker. The rice had sucked up every inch of moisture. I added more salsa verde mixed with some water. And then added more water. I had a pretty solid mass.

I was able to get it mixed up enough to lose the clay-like consistency, but I had a hell of a big container of leftover Chicken Salsa Verde with Rice in the refrigerator. It's going to be a long time before I make this one again.