I created this recipe as a response to the inevitable answer to the question “what do you want for supper?” “I don’t know” I developed this recipe the same way I develop most of my recipes, by thinking about what might taste good together, and ‘I Don’t Know’ was born.

  • Yield: 2-4 servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Total: 30-40 min
  • Active: 15-20 min

Ingredients (9)

  • 1 can chicken or beef broth
  • 1/5 cup butter (margarine works too)
  • 1 pint of Half and Half
  • Salt (I use natural sea salt) to taste
  • Pepper (I use fresh ground black peppercorns) to taste
  • Basil (I use it you don’t have to) to taste
  • 1 cup of rice (I use a mix of wild and white, use whichever you like best)
  • 1/2 lb of either ground beef, ground sausage, or chicken (for chicken pre-slice to 1″ x1/2″ strips
  • 2-4 cups of shredded cheese (depending on how much you like, I prefer 4 cups of a mix of mild cheddar and monteray cheese)

Instructions

  1. combine the broth, 1/5 cup of butter, and 1/4 of the pint of half and half in a medium sized pot, season with the salt, pepper, and basil and bring to a boil
  2. once the mixture is at a rolling boil lower the heat to a simmer and add the rice and set a timer to cook the rice for 18-20 minutes (try not to cook all of the liquid out)
  3. once the rice has been on for approximately 10 minutes it is a good time to start cooking the meat, for ground meat brow the meat in a regular skillet, for chicken it I prefer to sauté it in either olive oil or portabella mushroom oil on a medium high heat, again season the meat with salt, pepper, and basil
  4. once the meat is mostly cooked add about half of the cheese and another 1/4 if the pint of half and half and lower the heat to simmer and mix these ingredients together until the cheese is slightly melted by then the rice should be just about done
  5. when the cheese is melted and blended with the meat combine this mixture with the rice while stirring in the rest of the cheese and the rest of the half and half until evenly blended.
  6. to make a larger amount recipe can be doubled ore tripled, it does not work as well if you do more than double or triple though.