It’s been AGES since we had rice-a-roni in our house. Mostly because of the unhealthy and processed things in the box mix like MSG etc. It’s been sounding good lately, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy some. So I wanted to try and make it myself! And it was a huge success!! It really was just as easy as doing it from the box, but I knew exactly what was in it and I think it even tastes better.
Ingredients
- 1 cube butter
- 1 box cut spaghetti
- 2 cups white rice
- 4 c. chicken stock (2 T chicken bouillon mixed with 4 c. water)
- 2 c. water
- 1 T garlic powder
Instructions
It's been AGES since we had rice-a-roni in our house. Mostly because of the unhealthy and processed things in the box mix like MSG etc. It's been sounding good lately, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy some.
So I wanted to try and make it myself! And it was a huge success!!
It really was just as easy as doing it from the box, but I knew exactly what was in it and I think it even tastes better. I was able to score some cut spaghetti at Smiths on sale for $1/box!
(actually with coupons I'm going back to get more and they'll be less than 50 cents a box now!)
Here's what I did- keep in mind I was making a LARGE batch, it made enough for all of my family to have for lunch, and enough leftovers to make my rice-a-roni chicken salad the next day. In a pan melt 1 cube of butter
Once it was melted I added the entire box of cut spaghetti and 2 cups of white rice. (you could do brown rice)
Then I cooked the noodles and rice until they were golden- just like you do for the box mix.
After the rice and pasta had browned up a bit I added 4c of chicken stock (I mixed 2 T of chicken bullion with 4 c. water) and then 2 more cups of water, and 1 T garlic powder. (the kind I had is from Costco and has parsley with it)
Doesn't it look just like the box mix?!?!?
Now this is the part that takes a little tweaking...... bring it to a boil, then cover it and lower the burner to a med-low. You'll want to test it when the water gets absorbed to make sure your rice is cooked all the way.
I didn't have a lid big enough for this pan so my rice ended up being a little more chewy then I prefer, if that's the case just add a little more water and cook a little longer until the rice is cooked the way you like it. This was amazing!
And cheap to make!! To make as much as I did if you were buying/making it from the box would probably have cost 10 times as much!
