Chicken Frito Supreme

Hi there!  In honor of Serve It Sunday I want to share a new recipe that I found on Pinterest that will become part of our regular meal rotation.  The original recipe is at http://www.redaprongirl.com/chicken-frito-supreme/, although mine has a few changes plus a little tip.  This meal comes together without a whole lot of work, especially if you all ready have some trimmed chicken breasts ready.

We used:

2 trimmed chicken breasts, diced

1 cup salsa (due to my sensitivities I used extra mild picante instead, but it’s totally whatever you prefer, and I only had the one cup of salsa, so that’s why I went with some Ro-tel.  If you have a full jar of salsa, then use the original 2.5 cups of salsa and omit the Ro-tel)

1 can mild Ro-tel

1 can of chicken broth

5 tbsp. cornstarch (original calls for 3; if you use a picante or Ro-tel, then you will also need more cornstarch)

Grated cheddar cheese

Fritos chips

2 cups Instant Rice

Sautee the chicken until it’s cooked through (we went with two breasts because we didn’t want it as meaty, while the original recipe calls for 4), and then add the salsa/Ro-tel, broth, and cornstarch to the chicken.

Here’s where I take a detour from the original recipe.  It says to “let simmer while rice cooks”.  Most of the time cornstarch needs some heat to become active, just like when you make gravy, so after I stirred the mixture together (and added the extra cornstarch beyond the original recipe) and let it simmer for a while, I finally realized why the mixture was still thin and increased the heat to medium high just until it came to a boil. I then turned it down and let the mixture simmer, stirring frequently, and it thickened up well.  I cooked the instant rice with hot water as the package indicated.

(My feet have been excruciating for the past few days, so I was sitting on my knees on my walker to cook today.  I stepped down to rinse a measuring cup and when I turned back I discovered that Abby had taken advantage of my walker to check on the meal.  *laugh*  Apparently it smelled good, because she really didn’t want to get back down to the floor! *grin*)

Look how yummy the sauce looks once it thickens:

Once everything is cooked, layer rice, chicken sauce mixture, shredded cheese, and fritos on each person’s plate.

Chicken Frito Supreme

It is SO good and surprisingly hearty.  I only ate half of the plate of food.  We love cheddar, so we were pretty generous with the cheese, and I love how gooey it got after sitting on the hot chicken sauce mixture for a few minutes.  You can change up the chips, but I agree with the original blogger that Fritos really makes this dish pop.  I think it’s because of the corn flavor rounding out the almost Mexican food flavors.  If you like a meatier dish, then you can totally add more chicken.  The two breasts turned out to be the perfect amount for our preference (which is ironic, since Larry is very much a “meat and potatoes” man).  I like that the recipe is a good start that allows for a lot of versatility.  I really want to stress though that if your sauce mixture doesn’t seem to be thickening, then you need to bring it up to a boil and then let the mixture simmer, just like you would with a cornstarch based gravy.  It makes a world of difference.  If you have a really thick and hearty salsa, then I’d start with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and add as needed, if needed.  We’re going to make this again next week and we’re going to add some sliced black olives when layering.  Mmmm.  I hope you give this recipe a try.  You serve right from the two pans, and no baking needed, so it’s a great meal for a busy day in my opinion.

If you try it, I’d love to hear about your experience and especially any tweaks you made.  Until tomorrow 🙂