Homemade Rice-a-Roni

I created this dish for a side to my Red Neck Chicken but I also serve it with Roast Pork. Each has entirely different taste so you can adapt this to meet your needs as well. This works with heavy seasoned or light main dishes. You be the judge. Just work with the same ingrediants from your meats.

Broth mixture should be the leftover marinade from your main dish and either chicken or beef broth. I like to use about a 1/2 cup of beer as well but its not required. Total you should have twice as much liquid as pasta and rice mix. When using this side for Red Neck Chicken, wait for the chicken to completely cook and use the beer and chicken broth from the cooked chicken. With this recipe I use at least a full cup of extra beer. Total liquid should still be 4 cups.

break pasta into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces. If making a larger recipe, the rice to pasta ratio should be 3-1. When you have about a half cup of broken pasta, mix in a cup and a half of instant rice. Heat skillet on med high heat and melt 3 tbs of butter. Saute dry pasta and rice in skillet until golden brown. watch it, it goes fast.

Add broth mixture quickly upon browning rice/pasta mix. Add a tbsp of whatever spices you used for your main dish. For red neck chicken use Cavendar's all purpose Greek seasoning and Old Bay. For my pork roast use thyme and tarragon. Use the same ratio of spices as with the main dish. (i.e. more tarragon than thyme) turn down heat to simmer and cover. Stir a few times and check moisture level. At the 20 minute mark, if its dry add a little more broth, if its too moist, take the lid off and let it evaporate. A little bland at the final tasting? A pinch or two of garlic salt will bring the flavor right up.