I usually skip "me too" posts and comments, but how to cook moist and tender chicken breasts every time [from The Kitchn] does exactly that. I feel bad for not already sharing how easy and delicious this is!
I usually skip the first step of flattening the chicken. I've tried cooking chicken breasts both ways, and as long as I keep the thinner end of the chicken breast farther from the center of the heat and the pan, the end result is just as good in less time, with less of my kitchen exposed to raw chicken. I season very lightly with salt and garlic powder, but no pepper. I use either olive oil, or almond oil poured off my almond butter. It's especially tasty when some almond butter gets in the pan! If the chicken breasts are thick, I leave the heat on low for the second round of cooking for 10 minutes too. In less than 25 minutes, I have freshly cooked, delicious chicken breasts!
The chicken leaves some delicious broth in the pan, and often some bits of chicken. For my next step, I make rice with the chicken broth. I use my Progressive microwave rice cooker. So, for instance, if I make basmati rice, I add one scoop (about 3/4 cup) of basmati rice, and three scoops of liquid. I start with as much chicken broth as was left in the pan, and then I add cold water to fill three scoops. I microwave that for 18 minutes in my 900 Watt microwave. Then I take the rice out and stir it up. Since my crowd strongly prefers soft rice, I add two more scoops of water, sample it to adjust seasoning levels (usually just salt and garlic powder), and then microwave for another 12 minutes. Brown rice gets 21 minutes then 14 minutes; compared to the first round, the second round of cooking uses 2/3 of the water and 2/3 of the microwaving time. Now I'm up to an hour of cooking time, but 50 minutes of that is hands-off with no peeking so it's low effort.
From this point, it's a week of chicken and rice, but that's a delicious combination! Chicken with veggies over rice, chicken burrito bowl over rice, chicken stir-fry over rice, classic chicken and rice casserole, southwestern chicken and rice casserole, chicken fried rice, chicken and rice soup, pineapple chicken and rice, Greek chicken and rice, and that's just off the top of my head if you keep the chicken and rice paired together! I enjoy sliced chicken on my sandwiches, and rice is always a tasty side dish.
