Easy chicken Florentine with brown rice is a light and flavorful one-pot recipe ready in 30 minutes – perfect for a busy weeknight dinner!

(Updated with a new VIDEO – scroll down to check it out!)

Happy Thursday friends! What do you have going on this weekend?

I’m excited for a fun date night tonight with my husband. His parents got us tickets for Christmas to our Charlotte Symphony’s performance called Star Wars The Music. We both love the movies and the music and I bet it will be incredible to see it performed live!

Not to mention these days, I’ll take pretty much any chance to get dressed up a bit and go out on the town 😂 #momlife

As for the food today, I’ve got a great, easy chicken Florentine that’s a one-pot dinner with a somewhat new-to-me shortcut.

It was just last year that I discovered the Minute version of brown rice. I had never looked before and even if I’d seen it on a shelf, I never stopped to inspect the box.

I buy my brown rice in big bags and keep it in a container in my pantry. We’re a whole grain family and that’s just how I’ve always done it.

But with little kids who sometimes eat dinner before us, it was a bit of a pain to have to take 35 minutes to cook brown rice just for them.

So on one of those rare and magical days where I got to go to the grocery store all by myself (oh the sad things that make us happy as mothers!), I happened to be strolling past and something made me slow down to look at those boxes of Minute rice.

I zeroed in on the brown rice version, which it said takes just 10 minutes. As is my habit, I flipped the box over to look at the ingredients. I was sure that it would have some additives or stabilizers or other ingredients that would make me pause and wonder if I really want to eat that strange looking word I can’t pronounce.

But no! It’s just 1 ingredient: precooked parboiled whole grain brown rice.

Oh the world of possibilities that opened up to me! In that next week, I literally wrote out half a dozen recipes that I could make now that I could use quick-cooking brown rice. (I’ve substituted my regular brown rice in one-pot casseroles and such before but it almost never works. The chicken or meat always gets overcooked and the veggies turn to mush while the brown rice cooks and cooks.)

So today’s easy chicken Florentine is the first of what might be several one-pot dinners to use this shortcut. (And no, this is not a sponsored post; I was just excited to make this discovery!)

In fact, I will note: the texture is different. The quick-cooking brown rice is smaller and almost a bit chewier than the fluffy brown rice I’m used to. It’s good, and we all like it, but don’t expect it to taste the exact same.

This healthy chicken Florentine is a delicious combination of chicken breasts, spinach and Parmesan cheese – such a fabulous combination! And when it’s cooked all together with the rice, this becomes a hearty, but completely wholesome dinner that’s also gluten-free.

A few notes on this easy chicken Florentine:

• I like using the combination of oil and butter for flavor and to be able to cook this over higher heat. You can use all oil if you prefer.
• I like A LOT of spinach in my dinner and usually double up on what’s below. It takes some extra work to get it all in the pan and wilted, but I’ll go to great lengths for more veggies. 😉
• If you don’t want to use the Minute brown rice, you could cook your own rice separately. In the recipe below, skip adding the rice, broth and water to the pan and just cook the chicken through and wilt the spinach. Then serve it over your favorite type of rice with Parmesan sprinkled over everything.

Here’s to healthy, quick + easy dinners – my favorite type 😊 (Sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter if you want more recipes like this!)

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

XO,

Kathryn

Here’s the VIDEO!

Easy chicken Florentine

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Preparation 00:10 Cook Time 00:20 Total Time 0:30

Serves 4 servings     adjust servings

Easy chicken Florentine is a light and flavorful one-pot recipe ready in 30 minutes!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch thick strips, cut into 1-inch thick strips
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or sub more olive oil)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups Minute brown rice
• 2 5 oz. packages fresh spinach leaves or baby spinach
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and onion and sauté for 7-8 minutes, turning chicken pieces once.
3. Add garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds.
4. Add broth and bring to a boil. (I turn the heat up to high to help it go faster.) Stir in rice, then cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Remove lid, stir in spinach, then cover and remove the pan from the heat. Let sit for 5 minutes or until liquid is mostly absorbed. Stir in spinach to help it wilt.
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve hot.

Recipe Notes

1. If your liquid isn’t mostly absorbed after the pan has sat for 5 minutes, just return the pan to the burner and cook over medium-low, covered, for an additional 2-3 minutes.

   If the liquid is absorbed but the rice isn’t fully cooked, add another splash or two of chicken broth or water, return the pan to medium-low and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until rice is tender.

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1 review

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
Amount Per Serving	As Served
Calories 594kcal Calories from fat 143
% Daily Value
Total Fat 16g	25%
Saturated Fat 5g	25%
Transfat 0g
Cholesterol 138mg	46%
Sodium 439mg	18%
Carbohydrate 60g	20%
Dietary Fiber 4g	16%
Sugars 1g
Protein 51g

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

	Calories	2000
Total Fat	Less than	65g
Sat Fat	Less than	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g
Dietary Fiber		25g