Baked Tomatillo Chicken with Cauliflower "Rice" :)

Usually I try to plan what I am going to make at least one day ahead of time. It takes away the last minute scramble for something to eat which is not only stressful but leads me to want to grab something quick and easy and not usually something healthy. Yesterday I meant to take some chicken breast out to defrost for today and then totally forgot about it.


So this morning when I realized that nothing was defrosted and my plan of marinated chicken on the BBQ was out for today I went on a search through my cupboards for something I could put over the frozen chicken breast so I could throw it in the oven to bake and to give it good flavor.


I found a Jar of Roasted Salsa Verdewhich is made with Tomatillos which seemed to fit the bill just perfectly. I just lined my baking dish with the frozen chicken breast poured the whole jar over them, covered it with tin foil and threw it into a 350 degree oven and let it bake for 2 hours while I was getting everything else ready.


I decided to make a healthier low carb version of rice to go along with it. I heard someone recently talking about making "rice" with cauliflower and even though cauliflower is not something I typically like It did sound interesting, and since it is health and low calorie, I thought I'd step outside my box and give it a try. 

I took my head of cauliflower out, rinsed it and cut out the core. Then I gave it a rough chop so that the pieces were smallish (I found that bigger pieces would not process as well) then threw them into the food processor and gave it a few buzzes until the cauliflower was chopped into tiny peices about the size of rice. I had to do it in about 5 batches because I have a small food processor. Also just to warn you it was kind of messy because the tiny peices of cauliflower want to get everywhere!


Then I put them into a big frying pan with 1 TBSP of olive oil, half a green pepper and half a red pepper diced tiny. Then I put about 1 TBSP of garlic powder, 2 TBSP chili powder, 1 tsp each of cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, and oregano (these are estimates because I VERY rarely measure anything, feel free to adjust to your own tastes). Then I turned the burner on high and sauteed the cauliflower until it was tender. Resist the temptation to add water. The cauliflower has enough moisture in and of itself to fry in and if you add water it will make the cauliflower soft and mushy.


I served the chicken on top of the rice and topped the whole thing with a tsp of fat free sour cream and a small sprinkle of fat free cheese. like I said, I do not like cauliflower. Never have, but this totally rocked! It was really really good. Really did taste very similar to mexican rice. My husband loved it, and all I can say is yummmmmm!


What did you have for lunch today?