Baked Chicken with Cashew Nut Rice

Tonights meal consisted of oven baked seasoned chicken breast with an all time family favourite of cashew nut rice. This rice dish has so many wonderfully combined flavours, such as turmeric, ginger, coriander, cayenne pepper and lemon. What I love about making this dish is after an initial simmering of 15 minutes, the dish is finished off baked in the oven for 30 minutes, leaving me some time to sit back and catch up on blogging or the afternoon tv soaps. This rice is very versatile, personally I have used it as a stuffing for chicken, hot side dish and is just as nice served cold for a buffet/BBQ.

Cashew Nut Rice

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil (I only use 1 tbsp)
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 medium red (bell) pepper, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, crushed
125g/1/2 cup basmati rice
350ml/1 1/2 cups hot chicken stock
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 ground coriander
pinch of cayenne pepper
90g/1/2 cup salted cashew nuts

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion, red pepper and garlic and cook gently for 4-5 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil. Add the stock, bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.

Transfer to a bowl and add the remaining ingredients to the rice. Season well. Spoon the rice into a greased ovenproof dish and cover with foil.

Bake in a preheated oven 190oC/375oF/Gas mark 5, for 30 minutes and serve.