Chicken with Black Beans and Rice

How pretty is this chicken and rice?

Since I had purchased 4 whole chickens, I decided to try another recipe using the entire bird, but cut up instead of roasted whole. Which means I went to my handy-dandy Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and flipped through until I found a pretty picture. Thus, a baked chicken recipe.

I cleaned up one of the birds, dried it and cut it into 8 pieces. The wings I threw in the freezer for another use later.

 

I did make some slight adjustments to the recipe based on how I hate to run out of breading (and so doubled that part) and what ingredients we had already (V8 vs tomato juice, regular diced tomatoes vs those with onions and green pepper, etc).

Chicken with Black Beans and Rice

1/2 c all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2-1/2 to 3 lbs meaty chicken pieces (breast halves, thighs, and drumsticks)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
3/4 c V8
1 c frozen whole kernel corn
2/3 c long grain rice
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced

In a large plastic bag combine flour, 2 teaspoons of the chili powder, the salt, and pepper.

Add chicken pieces, one at a time to ensure complete and even coating. Seal bag; shake to coat.

In a very large skillet brown chicken on all sides in hot oil over medium heat about 10 minutes, turning once.
 

Remove chicken from skillet and set aside; discard drippings (or not -- I didn't considering how little there was).


Add beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato juice, corn, uncooked rice, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, the cayenne pepper, and garlic to the skillet. Bring to boiling.
 

Transfer rice mixture to a 13x9x2-inch baking dish or 3-quart rectangular casserole. Arrange chicken pieces on top of rice mixture.

Bake, covered, in a 375°F oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F for breasts; 180 degrees F for thighs and drumsticks) and rice is tender.

I really liked how this turned out, especially how evenly browned the chicken was (it looked good enough to eat right after browning) and how fantastic the rice tasted! The rice was very similar to the squaw rice we received from one of our Totally Bitchin' Neighbors a while ago. Rodney didn't care too much for the rice, probably because of how tomato-y it was, but he didn't play around when it came to eating the chicken.

Another good thing about this is how it was pretty simple to slap together. Most of the time was spent waiting for dinner to bake in the oven. Once it went in there, I was able to clean up a little and chill out a while.

Cost:

• whole chicken: $3
• beans: $0.89
• the rest I'm lumping together as $3 to make this dish

Total: $6.89 for 3-4 servings.

The recipe said 6 servings, but come on. That means 2 people get just a thigh and 2 others get a drum each. Seriously, who eats just a drummy?

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