(One Pan!) Baked Caprese Chicken with Brown Rice

Y'all. Mondays... am I right? Monday is the day I most often find myself day dreaming about new recipes and distracted from whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing. ...work. I work in community mental health. I frequently find myself drained, not feeling good enough and always feeling like my life is a scalding hot mess. I hear I should probably get used to it because that's adulting? ...Yes? Awesome. Upside: my job is kind of great in that I get to work from home sometimes. Downside: there are SO many ways I like to complicate my work life by simultaneously doing home life things. Like cooking. And meal planning. And doing laundry. And talking to my dogs. And taking them to the vet. Does the kitchen floor even really look like it needs to be mopped until Monday morning? Not to me, sure doesn't! Example- today I helped my mom out by spending a half day babysitting her 3 dogs. I also brought my two fur babes over to play. I was all, "Oh sure, that will give me lots of time to work on my computer and make phone calls while the dogs play! What a fabulous and flawless plan! Look, there's a unicorn sliding down a rainbow!!". My optimism was hilarious and truly depressing all at once. At one point my mastiff-boxer mix, Rory, was actually bear hugging me from behind with both her paws on my shoulders and giving me a wet willy in one ear while I was trying to make a phone call in the other (but how could you stay mad at this face?!?!)

Needless to say, I ended up doing close to nothing but dog-mom-ing and thinking about food. Such is the story of my life. Unfortunately the things I was made to do... finding the people I love a perfect gift for every holiday, scouring the internet for the best recipes, and treating my animals like actual human children... are not very lucrative things. I actually lose money doing all of those things. So, here I am! Let's see if channeling all my culinary creative energy into something concrete will help me to preserve my sanity while figuring out how to adult.

I'm so excited to tell you about my first creation!! This cheesy savory beauty is the love child of two recipes I've been playing with on Pinterest --(http://juliasalbum.com/2016/05/tomato-basil-artichoke-baked-chicken/ & http://dinnerthendessert.com/one-pan-baked-chicken-brown-rice-vegetable-casserole/)--. Mad props to Julia of "Julia's Album" and Sabrina of "Dinner, Then Dessert" for their culinary genius as they were the muses of my (One Pan!) Baked Caprese Chicken with Brown Rice. Check it out.. I'd love to hear what you think!!

(One Pan!) Baked Caprese Chicken with Brown Rice

Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hr and 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 chicken breasts (mine were about 6 oz each)
- 3/4 C uncooked brown rice
- 1 1/2 C chicken broth (low sodium, fat free)
- 6-8 fresh basil leaves
- 1 firm Roma tomato
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1 7 oz jar of artichoke hearts (I used quartered marinated)
-  4oz fresh mozzarella (about 4 1/2inch slices)
1/4 C parmesan cheese
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- salt and pepper
- oregano (dried or fresh)

aluminum foil
9x7 baking pan

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 and grease your pan. I used a 9x7 glass pan for this two serving recipe. Judging by the recipes above that I utilized for reference, it seems that this recipe could be doubled in a 9x13 to serve 4. Scatter your rice on the bottom of the greased pan. Trim and clean chicken of fat pieces and then lay on top of the rice like so.

Generously salt, pepper and oregano your chicken to taste. Set your 1 1/2 C broth to boil in a small pot while you chop your vegetables. Chop your onion, artichokes, tomato, and basil leaves. Add your veggies and herbs to a bowl and mix with parmesan and garlic. This is what mine looked like with the seasoned chicken!

Pour your veggie/herb mixture on top of the chicken evenly. Mine covered the pan without extra space.

At this point your broth should be boiling! Remove from heat and pour your boiling broth over the contents of your pan. It should cover the chicken, veggies and rice about 3/4 of the way up. Wrap the whole pan (tightly!) in aluminum foil and place in your pre-heated oven for 1 hour. Do not peek!!!  If any heat is released during baking it will increase your baking time dramatically. After 1 hour, take the pan from the oven and remove the foil. Mine looked like this and smelled delightful!

BUT WAIT. Something is missing!! Doesn't it look lonely?? What is missing?? CHEESE. Duh. I'm lonely without cheese too, friend. Slice your mozzarella (if it didn't come sliced like mine) into about 1/2 inch slices and place two slices on each chicken breast. Broil for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and starting to get brown and bubbly (heart eyes).

Mine looked like this after 13 minutes under the broiler. Let cool for 5-10 minutes (depending on your ability to practice self-control) and then serve that baby up! It goes really well with red wine... but doesn't everything? Yes, I'm THAT girl that drinks red wine at your tailgate and on the beach and all the inappropriate places to be drinking red wine. I don't by any means prefer to drink red wine while I'm sweating, but hey, "No excuses, Play like a champion", right?? Plus beer makes me full too fast and then I can't eat which makes for a hangry tornado.

I just had a vision of this dish with portobello mushrooms instead of chicken breasts and started salivating. So someone try that, please? Looking at you my vegetarian babes (whoop whoop!!). ...also just had another vision of feta on top so I actually might do that immediately. Luckily (for situations such as this one) I buy feta at Sams Club in a container that you could easily fit a small child in... so I probably have enough. Spinach would also be a lovely addition. Play with it and express your personal veggie style. I would imagine that any veggie would work just the same!

That's all for this one folks! Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear experiences and variations.

Until next time!