Chicken and rice with a twist (of orange!)

Brazilian Chicken and Rice with Olives
The Bon Appetit Cookbook Copyright 2006

1 pound skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
1/4 cup olive oil I used canola oil
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup yellow rice mix with seasoning packet (from 8-ounce box)
1/2 cup (packed) pimiento-stuffed Spanish olives, halved

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro I left this out
Orange wedges I left this out

Sprinkle chicken lightly with salt and generously with ground black pepper. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, garlic, and peel; sauté until chicken is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add 1 cup water and orange juice and bring to boil. Mix in rice, seasoning packet, and olives. Return to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand covered 10 minutes.

Stir cilantro into rice mixture. Transfer to platter. Garnish with orange wedges.
_________________________________

This was a simple and not very expensive dish to make. I could only find 5 ounce bags of Carolina yellow rice mix. They were 75 cents each. I used one plus a little from the other to make 1 cup but next time I will just use one bag since I ended up having to add a bit more water to this. The chicken was under $2.50 in Costco. I used a big juicy navel orange that was $1.

There's a lot of oil in this. You could probably cut back some but the richness reminded me of when my mother would cook chicken over rice. Instead of chicken fat though, this is a healthier fat. Overall it had great flavor and was so easy to make, I will likely be making this again.

I'll be adding this to my boneless, skinless chicken thigh recipe round-up.