Baked Brown Rice

For anyone who knows me well, they probably know that I am somewhat vocal about my dislike of brown rice. I know I should eat it because it is so much more healthy, but white rice is SO much more yummy. Well, I tried this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe today and we ate it with stir-fry. I really liked it...this is not to say I will stop using white rice, because I definitely won't, but now that I have found this way to cook brown rice, it will probably make an appearance at our dinner table with certain kinds of food.

- If you double the recipe, it will fit perfectly in a 9X13 inch pan.

- Makes about 3 1/2 cups cooked rice

1 1/2 cups brown rice

2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or water (if using water, add 1 tsp. salt) I used one can of chicken broth and made up the difference with water.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8X8-inch or 9X9-inch baking pan. Place the rice in the prepared pan and pour in the liquid. Stir to equally distribute the rice. Cover tightly with a double layer of aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes (I will try 1 hour and 5 minutes next time...it was delicious but it was on the verge of being too dry). Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before removing the aluminum foil and fluffing with a fork. If your rice still has a bit of liquid on the bottom or conversely, if it is dried out, adjust the baking time up or down to make changes.

Variations:

Before baking, slice one small yellow onion into dices or half moons and caramelize and brown in 1 tsp. of olive oil until golden and soft (about 10 minutes in a nonstick skillet). Stir onion into rice and broth mixture and bake according to recipe.

After removing rice from the oven and letting it sit for five minutes, remove aluminum foil and stir in the zest and juice from 1 lemon, 1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese, 1 Tblsp. sugar and 1/2 apple, finely diced.