I don’t know about you but I hate to go grocery shopping. I hate battling crowds, always forgetting something, and the store usually being out of the one thing I came to get. So frustrating!
With all of that being said when I can’t find anything to make for dinner I usuallyplay a game with myself called “Iron Pantry”. It’s similar to the TV show Iron Chef (is that show still on??) in that I just dig through the pantry for random ingredients and make them into a meal. I have created some of my favorite meals this way! Today Iam going to share that meal with you, Spicy Ranch Chicken and Rice!
I was playing Iron Pantry one night when I created one of my all time favorite meals!! I literally came up with this recipe when I was in college and it’s still around today. Two things that I always keep on hand are chicken and brown rice…I switched from white to brown rice when I was in college and never looked back. It just tastes so much better to me than white rice!!
I marinated my chicken in some fat free Italian dressing and grilled it on my George Foreman. Can I just stop and say right here that I am obsessed with my George? I am a single lady and have not yet mastered an outdoor grill, but I can grill anything on my George!
I usually use whatever brown rice I find but have made it a point lately to buy Riceland Brown Rice. I love knowing that the rice I use was grown and harvested right down the road, Plus it just tastes better than most.
With my protein and grain I had a great start for the base for my meal! The night I created this meal I had some bell peppers, mushrooms, and garlic that I needed to use so I decided to sauté them and mix them in with my chicken and rice. The meal was looking better but needed a little something…
After digging though my spice cabinet I decided to spice it up with some Cajun seasoning. I always have Cajun seasoning on hand; it just goes good on everything!!
It was looking pretty good but I decided to kick it up a notch and throw a little Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch on it and HOLY MOLY it was amazing!! And finally finished…HA!
These days I usually have everything I need to make this Spicy Ranch Chicken and Rice on hand and make it at least once a week. Sometimes I switch the veggies up and just use whatever I have on hand but that's the beauty of any recipe, you can totally customize it to what you like!
So that’s it for my favorite go-to dish!! What’s yours??
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup fat free Italian dressing
- 2 cups Riceland Brown Rice
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 cup mushrooms
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 2 Tablespoon Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch
- 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
Instructions
- Marinate chicken in Italian Dressing
- Grill chicken until done and then set aside
- Make brown rice according to the directions on the Riceland bag
- Chop up all bell peppers and onions and sauté on medium until veggies are tender
- Add in mushrooms and minced garlic
- When veggies are done set aside
- In a bowl mix brown rice, grilled chicken and veggies and cajun seasoning
- Top with Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch Dressing
- Enjoy!
I do the same thing sometimes for the same reason. Generally, I can put together something we like. Yours looks good. Thanks.