We made chicken and rice flavored with curry and orange juice for dinner last night, an easy recipe to get us back into cooking mode following a long weekend of eating out. I’ve never had it before, despite it being a pretty common dish anywhere in the world. Needless to say, I’ve never made it before, either. Cooking rice in something other than a rice cooker? Weird! But the dish was really easy to make, despite taking a relatively long time to cook. And the ingredients were easy to get. Added bonus: it’s a pretty healthy and well-rounded meal!

Main ingredients: chicken, rice. Both easily and cheaply bought, since the Chinese eat both in rather large quantities. We threw in some carrots, as well.

Special flavorings: curry powder, orange juice. Ditto.

Total cost: 20-25 RMB ($3.50) for four servings. The chicken accounted for about one-third to one-half of the total.