Upside Down Chicken Rice

Our friends, the Cross Family, were coming over for dinner last Thursday and I had every intention of whipping up a batch of the simpliest, easiest, tastiest chicken dish ever, Sweet & Sour Chicken. My mom got this recipe years ago from Lipton Onion Soup mix; here's a version of it; she used to always use a whole chicken cut up and more preserves, but you can just wing it or let me know, and I'll look up the exact measurements.

Anyway, I was convinced I had all the ingredients on hand and even though I had made a note to double check, I decided against it and just went to the store for other items we needed. After picking up my son from his little pre-school and tucking him in for a nap, I go to assemble my ingredients and of course, they weren't all there.

In a rush to find some other kind of chicken I could make with ingredients I had on hand, I found this one for Upside Down Chicken Rice. It has a Mediterranean flare to it and even though I'm not a huge cinnamon fan and was a little hesitant about boiling chicken, it turned out really well. Give it a try.

The only things I did differently: used boneless skinless chicken breasts, added in about a cup of frozen peas as another reviewer suggested, and cut waaaaay back on the oil. Although I was tempted to toast the nuts in the oil, I just toasted them in a dry pan. And when I fried the chicken and carrots before adding the rice, etc., I only put in a tablespoon or two versus 1/4 cup.

I also tried to cut down on the number of dirty pans, though technically I dirtied more plates and bowls in the process. For instance, I didn't want to fry the chicken and carrots in a new pot, so I just removed the main solid contents to a plate and poured the stock into a bowl, then poured 3 cups of this into a 4-cup Pyrex liquid measuring cup. (BTW, the recipe is set up to make 12 servings so make sure to pare it down; I went to four.)

Otherwise, the only other thing I'd do differently in the future is skip the frying in the oil part. I don't think it's worth the effort, but you can make your own mind up. Enjoy!