Red Pesto Chicken w/ Rice

I love one pan, one pot and sheet pan meals. I still sometimes do the more complicated dinners that take a lot of washing up after, but do my best to focus on healthy options that keep the clean up on the easier side.  When I saw a video for Red Pesto Chicken Bake shared by Rise with Teagan go down my Facebook feed, I was hooked.

The downside is this recipe is listed in grams, and converting it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I managed a few, but mostly looked at the units listed on the small jars and tried to take out the right amount. This time I just winged it, but next time I will do my best to convert into North American measurements. Let’s face it, 2 handfuls of spinach is pretty unclear. I take big handfuls as I know it cooks down a lot. Others might take small handfuls.

This chicken/rice bake turned out great except for one small glitch. The rice ended up slightly chewy.  I have seen in similar recipes where they sometimes heat up the broth before adding to get the rice started cooking, but I am not sure that would work with the Greek Yogurt.  So keep your eye on the rice. You can always let it cook a little longer. The recipe was still delish. 

Enjoy!

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Red Pesto Chicken w/ Rice

Ingredients - 

1 lb.                      Chicken breast (or thigh) cubed
1 cup                    White rice (uncooked)
1                           Red Pepper, sliced or diced
150g                     Sun-dried tomatoes (I used in oil, but drained)
190g                     Jar Red Pesto (also call Sun Dried Tomato Pesto)
2 C                       Chicken stock
300g                     Low-fat Plain Greek yogurt
2                           Handfuls of spinach
150g                     Shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup                   Black olives, sliced (could add more)

Instructions -

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large 9x13 baking dish, add the chicken, uncooked rice, red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, red pesto, chicken stock, Greek yogurt, olives and spinach. Mix everything together until well combined. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. (Note I found it hard to incorporate the raw spinach into the cold ingredients, so put the covered casserole without the cheese in the oven for 5 minutes to start the spinach wilting, then took it out, stirred the spinach in and sprinkled the cheese on top.  Then I recovered the casserole and put it back in the oven.)

Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the rice and chicken are cooked through and the top is golden. If it is done and doesn't have browned flecks on the cheese, tuck it under a broiler for a few minutes.