Red beans and chicken rice

– July 1, 2009Posted in: recipes

Sometimes i have ideas for recipes that rattle around in my brain for ages. I know what they’ll taste like and how they’ll work but they won’t fit in with how I’m eating or the season. This is a recipe that I devised in the summer when there’s little need for warm comforting food after cold outdoor cardio sessions. My final motivation for actually cooking this is my shared interest, with Amanda, in a non-sugar laden red bean dish. This one would be perfect after a cold Canberra mountain bike ride.

The slow cooker process makes the rice a delicious rissotto consistency and I’ve totally fallen in love with this method of cooking chicken breasts. The next edition of Oxygen should have a low-carb variation on this chicken method.

I’ve included shredded toasted seaweed in this recipe to add extra idodine to my diet but I could see how a lot of people would find this a bit too weird a flavour combo.

1 cup brown rice, rinsed
1/2 cup adzuki beans, rinsed
500g free-range chicken breast
1 tablespoon wheat free light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup shredded toasted seaweed
Seaweed Gomsasio to garnish

Place the adzuki bean in a saucepan with 2-3 times the volume of water, bring to the boil and vigorously simmer for 10 minutes. Drain.

Place the rice and adzuki beans in a slow cooker or  large saucepan with a lid. Place the chicken breast on top of the grains. Cover with 7 cups of water and cook on ‘high’ for 4-6 hours or simmer gently for about 4 hours or until the liquid is absorbed.

Using 2 forks shred the chicken into tiny strips by pulling them apart. Stir in the chiken, soy sauce, sesame oil and seaweed.

Makes 5 serves, freezes well.

I haven’t bothered with exact calories for this one, it’s my PWO meal.
Guestamated  at about
280cals
22g protein, 40g carbs, 4g fibre and 3.5g fat.

About Michelle

Michelle is passionate about showing people how easy it is to prepare food that is healthy and packed full of flavour. She has just completed her first recipe book, Healthy Helpings: fast food for fit physiques. She began sharing her love of food in 2007, when she produced two series of the online cooking show ‘Healthy Helpings TV’, making fast food healthy and healthy food fast. In 2008 she competed in bodybuilding as a novice figure shaping competitor and she remains passionate about physique sports. She was a 2009 Australian Masterchef semi-finalist, and contributes articles to Oxygen Magazine Australia. Michelle lives with her husband on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, where she loves to search out new ingredients and food ideas from local farmers markets, health food shops and ethnic grocers, and take her two dogs on long rambles through the vineyards.