When I was a child I grew up with members of my family having lived through the second world war. My grandparents were all adults and my dad was seven when the war ended. I’m not sure how old my mum was at the end of this difficult situation but I have learned a lot about this time through these people. Both my grandparents and parents don’t or didn’t like to waste food. For those of you that might not know much about the second world war food was rationed.
Every item of food that came into the home was eaten. In fact not much, if anything, went in the bin. I try to make sure all the food we buy gets eaten. There have been times when this is not possible as we are human but I’d say about 90%of the food we buy we eat. When I cook a roast chicken on a Sunday, I stew the bones to make stock and I use the leftover meat for other meals. I decided to try the leftovers with pesto and rice. The results were amazing and it made a great leftover dinner.
Do you have a lot of leftover chicken and if so, what dishes do you have it in? Let me know in the comments below and please don’t forget to like and follow me.
Equipment
- Sieve
- Blender
- Tablespoon
- Saucepan
- Stirring spoon
Ingredients
- Pine nuts x 100g
- Olive oil x 80mls
- Basil x 1 large handful
- Lemon x 1 juice and zest
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Nutritional yeast or parmesan x 4 tbsp
- Leftover chicken x 500g
- Rice x 300g
- Salt for the water
Method
- To start the meal rinse the rice with water twice through the sieve.
- Put the rice into the saucepan and pour enough stock to cover it and then about 2 centimetres above that.
- You may need more water than I have suggested above, so add the 250mls then if you need more add it.
- Add in salt to your tastes.
- Turn the heat back up and bring all the ingredients to the boil.
- When the ingredients are at boiling point, turn the heat down and leave to simmer on a low heat.
- Place the pine nuts, olive oil, basil, lemon juice and zest and the nutritional yeast or parmesan and salt and pepper to taste into the food processor and blend until smooth ish.
- Cut the chicken into chunks if not cut up already.
- Go back to the rice and if there is a little bit of water in the saucepan with the rice, turn the heat up and start to stir it until all the water disappears.
- Now mix in the pesto and chicken.
- Once these ingredients are all mixed together serve with a salad and enjoy.
Chicken, Pesto and Rice, NICE! was a really tasty dinner and my little family ate in silence during this meal. For me this is good sign that they are enjoying it. It’s like they can’t get enough of the dinner. They don’t need to talk, they just need to eat. Sadly this is not a meal you can freeze. It’s not advisable to freeze cooked rice as it’s not good for the stomach. The pesto and the leftover roast chicken can be frozen. You can make the pesto in advance of this meal and defrost it before you want to use int with the rice. However you decide to eat this dish, as always, please enjoy. Thank you xxx
Googies Kitchen Life 