Velveeta Trilogy- Part II

My second foray into the world of "Velveeta: Recipes for People who Eat Food" come from the chapter entitled "Mexican Madness". The chapter info:
"Your self control slowly diminishes, your eyes widen and your taste buds begin to pulsate... you have been diagnosed with Mexican Madness. This condition may sound a little scary and intimidating, but once you expose yourself and others to these recipes you will discover that being absolutely mad is a blessing and should be cherished and spread to others." Uhhh... what?

One plus side to the Velveeta recipes is that they've been turning out well. They're easy and so far, have been consistently good. Certainly not five star gourmet cuisine, but it is nice to have a recipe that you know you'd have to do something really awful to screw up.

This go-'round I made Tex Mex Chicken and Rice. It says it serves four, but you wind up with a huge quantity of the rice. I made five chicken breasts, and we still had extra rice. I would go so far as to say you could get six to seven servings of rice, so buy extra chicken. I also seasoned my chicken, because the recipe left them plain (no salt, even). My changes are marked with an asterisk.

Tex Mex Chicken and Rice

From Velveeta: Recipes for People Who Eat Food

Original serves 4; Modified serves 6

4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts (*I'd recommend at least 6)

*kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, to taste

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can chicken broth

1 cup salsa

2 cups instant rice (*I used instant brown, which increased my cooking time)

8oz Velveeta, cut into cubes

Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray. *Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add chicken to skillet, cover. Cook on med-high heat for about 4min on each side or until cooked through. Set cooked chicken aside on a clean plate.

Add broth, beans and salsa to skillet. Bring to a boil.

Stir in rice and Velveeta chunks. Lay chicken on top, cover. Cook on low heat for 5 minutes, or until rice absorbs liquid. (*Mine took closer to 15min.)

I topped mine with a little bit of shredded Velveeta (you have no idea how hard it is to shred Velveeta!) and some extra salsa. Because you don't stir the rice while cooking, you get little melty pockets of cheese, which is pretty yummy. Kyle was enthusiastic about it. I liked the rice, but thought the chicken was a little boring. I wound up cutting mine up and mixing it into the rice. Next time I might marinate the chicken in something simple, like salsa. All in all, it was good and very easy, plus it uses stuff that's easy to keep in the pantry or freezer, which would make it great for a mid-week meal when you're too tired for anything that requires extensive prep work.