Baked Cheddar and Tomato Rice

Mmmmmm, cheese...

I was unsure on what to cook today. I usually plan it out, but the weekend didn't leave me much time to decide on today's dinner. So last night, when trying to get to sleep, I was thinking of what would be nice to have. I got to thinking that chicken pieces, chicken salami and cheese with a dash of tomato sauce, then baked together might be nice and had pretty much decided on that. But, the next morning, I remembered this dish with tomato and cheese and rice in it in one of my "recipes to try" collection. So I thought that might be slightly better and filed away the other one for use later.

The original recipe was actually completely vegetarian, but my housemates would bite my head off if I served a dish with no meat for dinner. So I modified it slightly to add the chicken and salami - so I pretty much had the dish I had in mind anyway! Haha. :D I also increased the amounts. It was supposed to serve 4, but I highly doubt they had people like Justin (and me and Hadi for that matter!) in mind. So here we go!

What you need:
Boneless, skinless chicken - cut into small pieces (I used about 4-5 drumsticks)
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
2 teaspoons tomato puree
Black pepper, for seasoning
Pinch of salt, for seasoning

1 onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper (capsicum), seeded and sliced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
500g rice (it said long-grain, but our current stock is short-grain Japanese rice)
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
400g can chopped tomatoes
3 cm chicken salami, chopped (optional)
150g mature cheddar cheese, cubed or grated

What you do:

1. Mix the chicken with the tomato sauce, puree and season well. Set aside.
   
2. Turn the oven to 180 C. Fry the onion and pepper in the oil in a non-stick wok until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
3. Stir in the rice until completely soaked in oil, then add the stock and tomatoes and season. Bring to boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed. Mix in the salami, if using.
   
4. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish. Smooth out the top and add the chicken pieces. Press onto the top in a single layer. Scatter over the cheese to cover the chicken.
5. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the rice is tender. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Mmmmmmmm. This dish looked super tasty in the original recipe, All melty cheese, with a dash of red here and there. Hadi and Justin were a bit doubtful about using tomato and cheese with rice, as that is usually reserved for pasta, but I do think they would go well together. How can you go wrong with tomato and cheese?

And sure enough, it was really nice! The rice had a touch of tomato flavour in it which went really really well with the cheese. Unfortunately, I didn't have much cheese to spare, so there probably wasn't enough cheese in there. Or, it could be the cheese fanatic in me that's speaking, hehe. Hadi agreed, although that's not saying much either.

Hadi said that he didn't really like tomato with rice, but the dish was "acceptable". So it looks like he didn't like it as much as I did. :P But I, on the other hand, really really liked it! It was really nice! Definitely my kind of dish, hehe. I'm pretty sure I would be making more of this (for myself, maybe). If I did, I would probably add more cheese. Maybe even mix some in with the rice, before adding more at the top. Yum! Just like pasta. :D Also, I actually don't like peppers all that much, but the red pepper here was all nice and tender from the baking. You could barely taste it, but it gave a nice spiciness to the whole dish.

And, the rice was slightly soggier than I would like, so I might reduce the amount of water next time. I prefer my rice a bit firmer. Hadi also complained that it wasn't "flavoursome" enough, but I thought it was just right. Oh well. If you do decide to make it, just adjust the seasoning to your taste. Add some tomato sauce or puree or something, if you think its not tomato-ey enough.

But the one thing it definitely needs is more cheese. Oh yes. ;)

Quote of the day: Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.