Cheese-y Rice? No matter what you choose to call it, this rice is good – mebbe even a little better than good, because I made it from the white rice left over from our latest take-away order from Best Panda.
We have friends who have no problem using leftover rice – one likes his with a bit of ketchup – but I was raised with Minute rice tossed with some Le Sueur peas and La Choy soy sauce (don’t hate, it was tasty!), so I needed guidance when faced with one of those packed, white boxes.
By the way, were you aware that one of those little boxes contains around 4 cups of cooked rice?
Anyway, a quick search of da Google turned up a lot of options, none of which were exactly right, so I took a bit from one, added another bit from another, and added a few touches of my own to make a fine side dish that worked as well with the honey glazed 
dinner ham I was planning as it did (as leftover, ermmm, leftovers) with black bean, cheese and onion enchiladas for lunch the next day – I may even start making rice more often at home, just to have the leftovers.
INGREDIENTS
•4 cups leftover rice
•1/2 onion, diced
•2 tbsp oil
•1/4 tsp black pepper
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 tsp seasoned salt
•1-1/2 cup chicken stock
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Sauce – or your preferred hot sauce (optional)
•1/2 cup shredded cheese
Heat the oil in a large pan.
Add the onion and sauté for five minutes.
Add the parsley, seasoned salt, and pepper and continue to sauté for another three minutes or so, until the onion is tender and 
just starting to brown, but the parsley is still bright green and fresh looking.
Stir in the rice and the chicken stock, then the Cajun Power or hot sauce (if using it).
Lower the heat and cook, stirring often, until the chicken stock has been mostly absorbed.
Remove from the heat, add the cheese, and stir until melted. I used some rather strong provolone that Rich thought it bit much, so bit of cheddar, or mebbe Swiss or Romano would’ve been a better choice, tho’ I was still pretty well pleased.
Serve.
We had ours with slices of this honey-glazed dinner ham, a bit of honey mustard, and a salad with blue cheese dressing. The ham was pretty nice, tho’ I think I used a bit too much orange juice in the glaze, I’ll have to fix that for next time.
Still worth a look, tho’…