Recipe: Chicken in a mushroom and creme fraiche sauce with rice

I cooked a proper dinner tonight - for the first time in ages. I think it turned out all right, so I shall write the recipe down so I remember it for next time! You lucky, lucky people can share in my new-found domesticity - next time, I might even take photos!

(Properly domestic and talented people are not allowed to laugh at me. It's my blog and I said so.)

Chicken in a mushroom and crème fraiche sauce with rice
(Serves 2)

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic (I like garlic)
a small tube of crème fraiche
120g of rice

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Sprinkle salt, pepper, oregano and thyme on one side of the chicken breasts, then add that side face down in the hot pan. Add salt etc to the other side and turn after five minutes. Turn the heat down to a medium heat and forget about it for the next ten minutes. (I have an electric stove, so it takes a while for the pan to actually start cooling down - leave to cook for a couple of minutes before turning the heat down if you use gas.)

2. After ten minutes, turn the chicken breasts again. Leave for another ten minutes.

3. While you're waiting, put a couple of litres of salted water on to boil, for the rice.

4. Chop the onion and add to a third pan with a generous splash of olive oil. (I didn't say this was light on the washing up. It's part of why it feels like grown up cooking, so hush with your complaints.) Cook on a medium heat for a couple of minutes, while you chop the garlic. Add the garlic and turn the heat down to low. (Again, I use an electric stove - adjust as necessary if you're using gas.) Chop the mushrooms thinly, but don't add to the pan yet.

5. When the water is boiling for the rice, add the rice and cook according to its instructions. (Mine took 12 minutes. If yours takes longer, you might want to do this stage before the onion...)

6. If things work out well - luckily, they did tonight - 5 or 6 minutes before the rice is ready, the chicken-breast-ten-minutes should be over. Turn the chicken breasts a last time.

7. Add the mushrooms to the pan with the onions and garlic in and stir occasionally.

8. One minutes before the rice is ready, add the crème fraiche to the pan with the mushrooms/onions/garlic and stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

9. Drain the rice and put on plates. Put the chicken breasts on plates. When the crème fraiche has warmed through and become runny, spoon over the rice and chicken. Serve immediately.

(I meant to add green beans to the boiling rice a couple of mins before it was ready, but this proved too many things to keep track of and I forgot. I'd recommend it, though, if you're more organised than I am!)