Mexican Chicken & Rice - Sent In By Shegetz

MEXICAN CHICKEN AND RICE

Description:
A more healthy alternative to the Spicy Beef & Sausage Bolongnacurry, with a leaner meat and more veg per serving. Frankly I don't know how you can cram more carbohydrate into a meal than is in this creation, so if you've got a big run or something in the evening, this would probably make a hearty lunch with just one chicken leg. Alternatively it's a pretty solid dinner or, for a better suggestion, if you're having a romantic night in, put in more rice and put it out on an extra-large plate as a reasonably healthy sharer (there's no garlic and not much chilli in this, so it won't ruin your breath too much, and the rice makes for less slurping than spaghetti).

Feeds: 1 or 2.

Ingredients:

- 0.5x Tin of chopped tomatoes.
- 1x Short spurt of tomato puree.
- A few splashes of chilli sauce
(Or you can replace the above with about a third of a jar of a Ragu sauce)
- 1 or 2x Spicy chicken legs (or just plain chicken legs and a reasonable spicy powder coating sachet)
- 1 or 2x cups of plain rice per person.
- 1x Pack of supermarket pre-packed fresh green salad.
- 3x Large closed-cup mushrooms.
- 1x Pepper (Red works best).
- 0.5x One spanish onion.
- 2x h/tbsp. Mediterranean Herbs seasoning.

Preparation:
- Place the chicken legs in a frying pan on a medium heat (not high or this will burn the coating, it's not a nice taste burnt) and, if you need to, add the seasoning powder. These are awkward to fry as they're an odd shape, so be sure to keep turning them regularly to ensure they get cooked all the way through everywhere. Once you've got a good pattern going, put the rice in a saucepan full of boiling water. (For timing purposes, most rice takes 15 minutes, whereas the chicken will take slightly longer. Put them both on at the same time so you can prepare the rice after it's cooked and the chicken can go straight out of the pan onto the rice).

- This is the boring part. Wait 15 minutes while the rice boils, stirring occasionally and continuing to turn the chicken legs. There really isn't much to do in this time, so spend it getting drunk, snogging your beau, plotting civil war, etc. You can chop the mushrooms, onion and pepper and drain the tomatoes of their surface water too, if you're really looking for something productive to do. Chuck the veg in with the chicken legs and fry them for a little while, as they wont cook too well on the lower heat we're going to have when we mix it all up and raw mushroom is not a pleasant experience.

- Once the rice is done, drain it and pour a kettle of boiling water over it to wash the excess starch off. If there's two of you, there should be a lot of rice. To save on the washing up, stick the rice straight back in the saucepan you just poured it out of and quickly dump half a tin of tomatoes and some puree, or your 1/3rd-tin of Ragu, in with it. Stir it all up quickly and ensure it's on a very low heat to avoid burning anything. Chuck in the vegetables you chopped earlier and stir them in as well. Once all the rice is nicely red - if you feel like adding more Ragu or tomatoes, now is the time to do it, along with any more chilli sauce - it's time to throw in a few lettuce leaves from your bag of salad. Make sure they don't go completely soft in the sauce, they add texture if left slightly crisp.

- Scoop the rice out onto the plate, and lay the chicken legs, which by now should be a nice browny orange colour with their spicy coating, next to each other to make the design look symmetrical.