Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #61: Rice Gratin

 If the macaroni gratin is anything to go by this one should be alright. Ingredients are a bit weirder though...

Melt the butter!

I actually recommend doing the sautee parts before starting on the white sauce so that its not sat there solidifying for ages but once again TIME HAS NO MEANING HERE.

Mix!

Again, this part says add milk to the butter but im pretty sure its supposed to be flour, since more milk is added in the next step. Certainly worked out last time.

Stew!

Add milk, season with salt and pepper, and once the milk starts to get hella viscous our white sauce is done!

Cut!

Just gonna chop about 3 chicken thighs for this and freeze the rest. I also did the onions first. SAVES ON WASHING UP INNIT

Chop up!

No dicing needed! We just need to cut the onion into thin strips.

Saute!

Fry the chicken and onion and season with even more salt and pepper. I also used oil in the pan because i dont have a death wish.

Saute!

OK this took a turn. We add in the rice that we REMEMBERED TO COOK THIS MORNING BECAUSE WE ALWAYS CHECK THE RECIPE IN ADVANCE FOR BULLSHIT LIKE THIS. And then we add... yep... mamas favourite... just ketchup. Also I decided to GO HARD again and use japanese short-grain rice. Its a bit pricey for the ricey but i think the stickyness will really be worth it for a baked dish like this. If you want the same effect at a somewhat better value in europe though, I would imagine risotto rice works perfectly too.

Add toppings freely!

Situation report: the white sauce is dummy thick and its not really sinking down when poured on top of the rice, but thats probably fine. Mm ketchup and white sauce. Weird. And then the other toppings are bacon, mushrooms and shredded cheese. I just put raw strips of thin streaky bacon over the sauce and under the cheese, hopefully thats not too risky. Ill make sure the top is good and brown all over to be sure.

Set the timer!

Popping in for just 12 mins! ill give it longer if it needs.

Finish!

****

Very nice! A little weird, but nice. Not sure if the ketchup, white sauce and cheese combo is for everyone but definitely comfort food-y enough for me. The texture added by the chicken and onion strips I really liked and a good addition to this rice version. The bacon seems cooked through but i wish id crisped it up ahead of time anyway so itd break up more easily when portioning it out.