BBQ rice, beans and chicken dish...a recipe by me.

Lately I have been messing around with recipes just to spice things up and change things about. most times when I list my meals from the previous day I will say "3oz chicken breast, 3/4 cup white rice, 1/2 cup black beans, broccoli" now that just seems plain to me but its how it gets put into the Excel sheet that I keep because its just to count the calories not really which recipe I ate that particular day. from time to time I will list it how it was eaten and sometimes I get an email or comment asking how to make something, welp here is the BBQ rice and beans with shredded chicken that I have been making lately.

I will explain which parts of the chicken get used when I make this recipe because its pretty specific and not specific at all, if that makes sense. I roast whole chickens a lot around here and usually we eat off of that for the previous nights dinner and whats typically left is about 2/3 of a breast, 1 whole thigh and 1 whole leg among other random pieces of mixed dark and light meat (I skin and season the bird before roasting), this is what I shred to make this meal and the carcass gets made into soup, frugal aren't I? I know that the dark meat is not as "low calorie" as the white but I can't just let it go to waste now can I? if you were to choose to make this meal you can substitute the pieces from a whole chicken like I do it for boneless chicken breast or whatever you like, I happen to think the dark meat makes it taste a bit better and is only 60 calories per oz.

What you will need

12-16oz chicken (Dark mixed with white meat makes for a good combo)
Cooked white rice
1 can of Goya Black beans
Mccormick Grillmates BBQ spices
1 small onion
Black pepper
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (I like the Jack Daniels Tennessee Hickory)
Fresh Broccoli
Omega 3 butter spread or regular butter

and thats all you will need to make this easy, fast and tasty meal.

1) cook your white rice first as it takes the longest to cook out of everything in this recipe, that is assuming the chicken was pre cooked like mine is. and I assume everyone knows how to cook perfect white rice but if not here you go, basically you want to use 2 cups of water to every cup of rice, so lets assume that you are making 2 cups of rice. you would bring 4 cups of water to a boil add any seasoning to the water, around here its usually Adobo and some black pepper, you then want to put a couple drops of oil into the water and dump the 2 cups of dry rice into the pot cover it with a lid drop the heat down to a low simmer and leave it alone for 20 minutes, bamn! a whole pot of white rice shall be yours in 20 minutes.

2) Next you will start the broccoli, we steam ours so basically wash it place it in the steamer set it for 17 minutes and walk away. you can cook it how ever you like, steam it in a pan or boil it if you do not have a steamer.

3) While the rice and broccoli cooks open your can of beans and drain 85-90% of the fluid from the can and then dump the beans and the 10% fluid into a bowl, then take the Grillmates BBQ seasoning and shake some onto the beans and mix it up, give it a taste and add more to taste, I usually stir it up and them add some more and stir again. set the beans to the side.

4) Now for the chicken, shred it into a bowl and put a tiny amount of BBQ sauce into it, I use less than two tablespoons but more than one it should be relatively dry but coated, mix it together and add some black pepper, put it to the side with the beans.

5) The easiest step in this process, finely chop some yellow onion, set it aside.

6) pop the beans in the microwave for about 3 minutes or until its hot, do the same with the chicken, unless you made the chicken fresh and its already hot. everything should just about be done now and you can start measuring and mixing.

7) ok now its time to make the concoction, put 3/4 cup white rice onto a plate, on top of the rice scoop out 1/2 cup of the beans with the BBQ seasoning on them and on top of the beans drop a bit of the finely chopped onion and mix it all up until its even and the spices from the beans coat the rice. take 3oz of the shredded chicken with the BBQ sauce on it and drop it on top of the rice and bean mixture, add 3/4 cup of steamed broccoli on the side with a tiny bit of omega 3 butter spread and black pepper to the broccoli and enjoy.

30z shredded chicken = 180 calories
3/4 cup cooked white rice = 150 calories
1/2 cup black beans = 90 calories
3/4 cup steamed broccoli = 35 calories
onion and omega 3 spread = 15 calories

for a total of 470 calories and that is a huge portion of food for dinner, it fills me up easily and you can adjust the calories down to whatever you need them to be because everything is mixed at the end. an example is how my wife makes this meal she uses.

2oz shredded chicken = 120 calories
2/3 cup cooked white rice = 135 calories
1/4 cup black beans = 45 calories
3/4 cup steamed broccoli = 35 calories

Which comes to a total of 335 calories wify eats her broccoli plain and no onions in the mixture, I have eaten this amount and it is enough for a meal for me but I am usually trying to make up calories so I have a larger portion.

There you have it, BBQ rice and beans with shredded chicken and a side of steamed broccoli, I would imagine corn on the cob would fit right in next to this on the table I just prefer the broccoli because its lower in calories. by mixing the seasoning into the beans and then mixing it into the rice leaves a very light flavor on the whole plate and then You get the kick of a stronger BBQ flavor with the chicken. everyone in the family loves this meal and its a little different, I apologize for not having a picture to toss up here of the finished plate but it does look almost as good as it tastes, I make a spanish rice and beans with shredded chicken like this as well but thats for another day. Hope ya like it if you decide to make it.

As Ever
Me