Wild Rice with Chicken and Mushrooms

Kitty FloridoAugust 24, 2013

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

While it’s fun to go out with friends, lately we’ve been gathering at someone’s home and cooking meals. It’s always fun to hang around the kitchen and with some friends that share the love for food around, we end up getting together for birthdays too. I prepared this Wild Rice recipe for a double birthday celebration, and Juancho (house owner and kitchen lender), made one of his favorite salads: Green Beans, Tomatoes and Feta.

He has a small but amazingly well stocked kitchen. We even joked around when we were cooking, that by the third time I asked if he had something, one of our friends answered for him: “Who do you think you’re cooking with?”, following by his answer and laughter from the intervention. And he has the coolest gadgets! Check out below his cool pepper mill! Imagine an electric pencil… but with pepper! He has the best stuff. It’s the perfect little kitchen that I would love to cook in! He is so awesome that we are had him as a Guest Foodie with his Green Beans, Tomatoes and Feta Salad a few days ago!

This was my first time preparing Wild Rice, and I have to say it was great! I browsed for recipes, and bumped into this one from MyRecipes. I made a mashup of a procedure we recently used to prepare Jambalaya… You’ll love it, as it brings in so much flavor to the rice: you first half cook the chicken on the pot, then remove it from there and sauté the vegetables, adding the chicken back at the end. Then, you add it to the big rice pot, along with all the juices… Believe me, it was well worth it!

Kitty

Wild Rice with Mushrooms

Adapted from MyRecipes
Yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients:
2 (6-oz.) packages long-grain and wild rice mix
3 tablespoons butter
Olive Oil
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 garlic clove, finely minced
3 chicken breasts, cut in 1-inch pieces
12 ounces assorted fresh mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup Garam Masala spice mix (if you can’t find it at the store, recipe follows)
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation:

In a medium sauce pan, bring 1 cup wild rice, 3 cups water, and ½ teaspoon of salt to a boil.
Cover, reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer, and cook until the rice is tender and the kernels pop open, 45 to 60 minutes.
Season the chicken with the Garam Masala spice mix, as you would do a dry rub. In a medium-sized pot, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat and add the chicken to the pot, cooking it almost through, that should take from 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from pot, along with its juices and transfer to a clean bowl.
Next, add a little bit more of olive oil, then the onion, and sauté 7 minutes or until golden. Add the garlic and mix until combined.
Add the Chicken Masala back to the pot (with it’s juices) and cook it through, it should take you about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and salt; sauté 4 to 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.
Add a bit more of Masala if needed, and sauté 3 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
Uncover the rice and fluff it with a fork. Simmer 5 additional minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain off any excess liquid, if necessary. Steamed wild rice has many popped kernels and a very tender texture.
Stir chicken mixture and parsley into prepared rice. Serve immediately.

Note:

You can find Garam Masala in stores like Williams-Sonoma in the US or Tiendas Superb in Guatemala

Garam Masala Spice Mix

Recipe from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
1 ½ teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions: