With a couple of frozen chicken breasts, just dying to be cooked, I planned a head on this quick dinner recipe.

As delicious as baked chicken is, I didn’t have the patience to cook a long meal (no matter how delicious the outcome). Tonight was all about ease and whipping something tasty on a time limit. One of the best ways to cut time on cooking is the prep beforehand. Anything you can get ready the night before cooking, you should do it.

Knowing I wouldn’t be in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen tonight, I marinated a chicken breast in balsamic vinaigrette the night before. That made today’s meal quick as ever. Take a look at my Seared Balsamic Chicken with Jasmine Rice below.

One of my favorite ways to cook chicken is to sear it. I chopped one breast into equally sized chucks and tossed them around in the balsamic vinaigrette (which was just from a bottle of the salad dressing in my fridge).

To start off the meal, I cooked up the jasmine rice (which took a total of 15 minutes). Starting this while I got the chicken ready proved to save a lot of time.  For this dish, I used Lundberg Jasmine Rice — so light and fluffy.

Placing the chicken cubes into a saucepan, I cooked them through on the one side until almost fully opaque. Then flipping them over, keep them over the heat until there is no pink on the inside. For me, I tossed in a little garlic powder for flavor — feel free to add any spices or seasoning you would like.

I won’t lie either, I like my chicken a little burnt on the edges. When I can’t be grilling and get that charred taste to food, this is the next best option.  As the chicken finished up, the rice was just about ready to go as well. The next step is the easiest. Plate it and enjoy.

Rookie Chef tip: drizzle some Frank’s Red Hot over the dish to kick it up a notch in terms of flavor and heat.