Citrus Chicken & Rice

I'm a chicken & beef gal. Born and raised on meat. I lived on a farm; raised, named and slaughtered our own animals. No matter how hard I tried I cannot get away from my yummy meat.

HOWEVER, the biggest change has been that I strictly eat boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and at least 93% lean ground beef.

Being that I was raised on fried taters and, well basically every meal included fried this or that with a side of bread & butter. I knew this is not how I wanted my children to live.

Just in case any of you are wondering why so many of my recipes include meat, that is why.

We have also tried to make a diligent effort to include as few canned vegetables as possible to keep the sodium out of our diet. We truly enjoy fresh vegetables, and at the least fresh frozen vegetables.

So tonight I bring you Citrus Chicken & Rice. I read some reviews online and decided to go ahead and give it a try...my way. Most of the reviews stated that it was more like Citrus Rice with Chicken. I 100%, whole-heartily agree. I even tried to give the chicken some orange flavored by pouring a smidge of orange juice in the pan with the chicken while it was cooking, but no avail. It still tasted like plain chicken. That's okay though, the rice more than makes up for it.

I cooked the chicken, and per my usual, split the breasts in half. Less is more you know. Then I poured the ingredients (Uncooked rice, low-sodium chicken broth, dried onion, dried parsley and orange juice) into the pan...

Seriously, this is some of the best rice I've made. It had a very subtle citrus flavor and definitely makes up for the lack of flavor in the chicken. So I highly recommend taking a bite of both chicken and rice at the same time. I can say it is a very...very easy dish to make. I just wish I had a better way of infusing the chicken with the orange flavor. If anyone has an idea, please throw it at me.

Citrus Chicken and Rice

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
1 3/4 cup Reduce-Sodium Chicken Broth (Swanson's is the best)
3/4 cup Orange Juice
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup) [I used a quarter cup dried, chopped onion]
1 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice [I used Minute Rice]
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley [I used 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes]

1. Cook the chicken in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until it's well browned on both sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet.

2. Stir the broth, orange juice, onion and rice in the skillet and heat to a boil. [I added my dried parsley to the pan at this time rather than later] Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

3. Return the chicken to the skillet. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and rice is tender. Stir in the parsley.

Makes 4 servings at 239 calories each serving.

We will definitely be making this again!