Chicken and rice is classic comfort food whether presented as fancy or homey. It also makes for an excellent one-pot dinner. The one problem: This poultry-grain combo can take up to an hour to cook, and even longer if you’re looking to increase the nutrition and nutty flavor by using brown rice. However, with some smart shopping and good technique, you can turn out flavor-packed chicken and rice in less than 30 minutes.
The solution to cooking chicken quickly is easy: use boneless, skinless thighs. They’ll not only cook completely in a matter of minutes, but, because they contain more fat and connective tissue than breast meat, they’ll hold up to a 10-minute simmer that will infuse the entire dish with chicken flavor.
For the rice, I like to use par-cooked “90-second” packets of brown rice. Any brand will do. I skip the directions on the packets and simmer the rice with the chicken, frozen peas, lemon slices and water. This step will result in ultra-tender rice that soaks up the flavor from the meat and lemon.
These ingredient choices speed up the preparation and boost the flavor. A few extra steps before the final simmer take this dish from good to great. First, take the time to brown the chicken before doing anything else. After the chicken browns, caramelize tomato paste in the residual oil. Both of these steps will create an umami-rich fond on the bottom of the skillet that, once simmered with plain water, will form a delicious, brothy cooking liquid.
The best part? No need to dirty a serving dish. Bring the skillet straight to the table and dive in.
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