Italian Parmesan Chicken & Rice Recipe with Kraft Fresh Take

I love cooking for my family. But it’s not practical to prepare 3 hour chicken pot pie recipes every night at this busy stage of my life. Yet that doesn’t mean I have to give up making meals for my family. Quite the opposite – there’s many options for making quick & easy homemade meals. And that’s why I’m excited to tell you about my new discovery.

I prepared this Italian Parmesan Chicken & Rice dish in less than 10 minutes with only about 40 minutes to bake in the oven. It’s a quick & easy homemade meal, tastes amazing and is a hit with the whole family.

this idea now...

Combining natural Kraft cheese with special blends of seasonings and bread crumbs, Kraft Fresh Take takes the boring out of ordinary meals with a quick & easy step. There’s 9 Kraft Fresh Take flavor varieties, including three new versions: Smokey Mesquite BBQ, Spicy Chipotle Cheddar, and Classic Four Cheese.

I found Kraft Fresh Take in the dairy section of my store and it was just $2.00! I thought that was very reasonable and that’s coming from this strict-budget girl here.

#KraftFreshTake Flavor Makers

I’ve been asked to join the Fresh Take Flavor Makers program and will have the chance to share my experience with Kraft Fresh Take. That’s right – yours truly is creating recipes for Kraft and of course, sharing with you, friends! All based off my Kraft Fresh Take flavor. Which is…

Kraft Fresh Take Italian Parmesan

Yummy! Definitely the perfect fit for my family as we love parmesan.

Recipe Challenge #1

My first challenge was to create a recipe using Kraft Fresh Take Italian Parmesan. The idea didn’t take long to come to me – in fact, my husband suggested it. I had a great recipe already: my chicken & rice casserole dish. My family liked it but it was kinda boring and bland. Which meant it was the perfect challenge for Kraft Fresh Take Italian Parmesan.

And even more, I had the perfect night to try it out. Last Friday was a busier day than expected and I didn’t have time to make my planned meal. But with chicken and Kraft Fresh Take in my refrigerator, I had just what I needed to try out my recipe creation.

Kraft Fresh Take claims to add delicious taste to meals in one quick and easy step. But even I was surprised at how simple it was. It only took me an extra minute to shake the chicken in the Italian Parmesan mixture!

From start to finish, the entire delicious homemade meal took me less than 45 minutes to make. And prep time was less than 10.  That meant I had time to make the meal, then take a few minutes to catch up on grading some school papers and answering a few emails. That, my friends, meant a very happy mom in this house!

Let me show you how I made the recipe step-by-step:

Italian Parmesan Chicken & Rice with #KraftFreshTake Recipe

Ingredients:

•  Kraft Fresh Take Italian Parmesan
• 1-1.5 lb chicken breast, cut into strips or small pieces
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup long-grain rice (I use Jasmine long-grain white rice)
• 2 cups water
• 16 oz bag frozen peas & carrots (microwave for 4-5 minutes until thawed)
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp onion powder

Start by preheating the oven to 375°.

Pour the rice into an 9x13x2″ ungreased baking dish. Sprinkle the basil and onion powder on top.

Next, pour the water on top and add the cream of chicken soup and gently stir everything together.

Add the peas and carrots. Remember to thaw them in the microwave first. They don’t need to be fully cooked. Thawing helps reduce cooking time in the oven.

I have to say thanks to my hubs for taking a few pictures for me. Chicken hands and cameras do not mix well. 🙂

About the chicken breast: One of the great things about this recipe is you don’t have to cook the chicken first, saving more time. I like to cut up 1-1.5 pounds of chicken breast into strips or small pieces for this recipe. You can use larger pieces or even whole chicken breasts, but it will take longer to cook. If you’re in a hurry or simply want to save time in cutting up chicken pieces with young kids, smaller is better.

Time for the Kraft Fresh Take. Open the bag, pull the center divider apart, shake and mix the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese together, and then dip the raw chicken breast pieces in to coat. *Note: I rinsed the chicken breast in water first because the Fresh Take coated better. But not dripping wet – just a little.

Easy!

Coat all the chicken pieces and place them on top of the rice mixture in the baking dish.

One package of Kraft Fresh Take was more than enough for the 1.5 pounds of chicken breast I used. I even had some extra.
Obviously I couldn’t reuse it later (raw chicken – yuck!) but it smelled so delicious, I didn’t want to waste it either. So I sprinkled the remaining Kraft Fresh Take mixture on top of the dish.

Nice.

Now bake uncovered, for 35-45 minutes, checking to make sure the chicken is fully cooked. This is where the size of your chicken breast pieces plays out.

Serve. It’s amazing. My whole family loved it. Well my little boys picked out the peas as usual. Big surprise there. Ha.

But really, this Italian Parmesan Chicken & Rice recipe is fantastic and definitely going into my regular meal schedule.

It also makes for great leftovers. Just warm and serve.

I’ll be sharing another recipe I’m working on creating for #KraftFreshTake and an awesome giveaway in the coming weeks, so be on the lookout for those, friends.

Have you tried Kraft Fresh Take? What variety do you want to try first?