Italian chicken rice

This was a bit of a "using up leftovers in the fridge" kind of dinner, based on a recipe that I had for an Italian rice dish. I added some veg that I needed to use up, namely courgettes & mushrooms. The rest is mostly store cupboard items, so its a great stand-by meal. Tasty & filling! You could easlily leave out the chicken to make this a vegetarian meal.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

3 skinless boneless chicken breast fillets or 4 boneless thighs, cut into strips

1 red onion , cut into 8 wedges

2 red or yellow peppers , halved, deseeded and sliced thickly

6 mushrooms, sliced

2 courgettes, sliced

1 garlic clove , crushed

200g basmati rice

400g can chopped tomatoes

600ml chicken stock 

Basil leaves for scattering.

Preheat the oven to 200C

In a hob/oven proof dish. heat up half the olive oil, and fry the chicken til golden. Remove and heat up the remaining oil, and stir frythe vegetables until softened. Add the garlic & stif fry for 1 minute. Add the rice, tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil. Turn off teh heat, and put into the oven, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Scatter basil leaves to serve.