Chicken Rice Recipe for Solar Cooker is an awesome example of one recipe that can be cooked in many different types of solar cookers.
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Of course, this concept isn’t new. When I am in my kitchen, I can cook the same dinner in many different types of appliances. I can use a microwave, a slow cooker, my stove top, or my oven. So why would it be surprising then that one recipe can be cooked in different types of solar cookers.
Chicken Rice Recipe for Solar Cooker
One recipe. 3 different solar cookers. Same result.
I was sitting one morning trying to decide which solar cooker to use that day. I was making a Chicken and Rice casserole, an old family favorite. In the past, depending on my mood and how much time I had, I have cooked this dish in a skillet on the stove top, in an electric skillet, in a slow cooker, in the microwave, and baked in the oven. So I was trying to decide which solar cooker would be the best to cook it in to share with you.
I decided to cook the Chicken and Rice in three different cookers to illustrate how the recipe would be the same, with just a few minor adjustments for the type of cooker. But then, I sometimes needed to adjust it a little bit according to my inside method as well.
Three Different Types of Solar Cookers
I wanted to use three different types of solar cookers to highlight the differences between them. I chose the a glass tube solar cooker, the GoSun Sport; a box oven, the All American Sun Oven; and a parabolic solar cooker, the Sun Chef. Using a Sun Chef is like cooking on a stove top. The All American Sun Oven is a well insulated box oven and reaches high temperatures. Using the Sun Oven is like cooking in your oven. The GoSun Sport is a glass tube cooker. It gets hot fast and cooks fast, much like my microwave oven. You could also use a panel cooker like the Copenhagen or the All Season Solar Cooker very successfully.
I used the same basic recipe for each version of Chicken Rice Recipe for Solar Cooker. The main difference was the amount of water used. In general, water does not boil off or evaporate when solar cooking as it does with other conventional cooking methods. Therefore, the amount of water used in recipes should be reduced. But by how much is the question because there must still be enough liquid to re-hydrate and cook the rice. The general rule of thumb is to reduce the liquid by 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending on the recipe.
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Looking for the variation mentioned. How much water is used for the box oven?
Hi, Since liquids do not evaporate in a solar cooker like it does in a regular oven, liquids can be reduced by 1/4 – 1/2 cups depending on the recipe. For this recipe, the water can be reduced to 1.25 cups. Thanks for the question. Merry