have the same problem,and no real time to monkey around. so, here's what we're having:
1. use a deep casserole,
2. skin your chicken pcs if you want.,
3. Open a can of cream of (can be mushrm, cheese, chicken, celery, any cream soup, any brand) dump contents in sm bowl
4. measure 1 soupcan of rice (white, basmati, jasimine - if you use wild rice use more water ), spread in bottom of casserole sprayed w/ cooking spray.
4. add any veggies you like that match your familys likes and the soup flavor you picked - I chop up some carrots, celery, onion, green peppers, small chop spread on rice.
5. add 1 can water (or you can add chicken broth made w/ a cube here) stirred into soup in bowl. just pour it over.
6. nest the chicken pieces on the rice veggies, sort of wiggle them around
7. salt n pepper the chicken, add a few pats of butter and cover tight w/ foil. cook about an hr at 350Deg
serve w/ a salad, rolls/bread, and maybe a nice side veggie. quick.
reads longer then it takes to make. I use 1 can of rice and 2 pcs of chicken for the 2 of us. The "formula" for rice is: 1 part rice to 2 parts water in a covered pot. just pour the rice into a pot of water, turn it up to a boil, then put a lid on and turn it almost off for about 20 min, and never lift the lid to see how its cooking!! its steaming. all rice cooks this way except wild rice which takes more water for some reason. for a bigger family just measure out more rice
You can also cook thin porkchops this way, ham steak, hamburgers. just always have some kind of cream soup in the cupboard, and boullion cubes. I have chicken, beef, ham, and vegetable stock cubes on hand. it is also very tastey when you make the rice w/ cream of shrimp soup and frozen english peas, or peas/ carrots, or you can add chinese style veggies/5 spice powder. You dont need to cook it so long. Just use frozen precooked shrimp thawed under running water and just mix it in at the end before serving (cus if you put shrimp in the over for even half an hr at 350d it will turn into rubber!)
also, w/o meat in it you can cook the rice in a pot on the stove. Just measure the amt you want to cook, add small dice veggies, any spice you like and the cream soup and amt of broth per formula and cook as you were just making plain rice - heat to a boil, cover, turn down to just simmer/low. wait 20 min. (rice is usu done when you take the lid off and the water looks gone and the rice seems to have "holes" in it.) and, dont forget tomato soup is a cream soup - it great w/ tomatoes cut up in the rice and beef broth for the water.
Im lucky cus for some reason hubs loves rice and will eat these combos once a week. sharet