One Pot Chicken Rice- Thai Style

*** Healthy Thai Style Chicken Rice Recipe***

Life is so wonderful when ingredients play their perfect charm and bring out the dish you exactly want to have.. Am I not correct here? And life is even more wonderful when a simple easy recipe gives you a gourmet reward. This is interesting right? Of course we all want.. Sorry.. we all LAZY people want simple ingredients, easy cooking process, less time taken recipes.. For which I try to collect different easy recipes and try to share with you my tried & tasted pros-cons of them.

Marion is one of my favourite in such cases, she has easy ingredients to turn into luxury food for soul.. I tried this one from her collection and loved it so sooo much.. And I think you must try this..

Ingredients:

• Rice
• Chicken pieces
• Ginger- Garlic- Coriander roots- finely crushed
• Home made curry powder (recipe at the end)
• Curd
• Turmeric
• Salt
• Coriander leaves to garnish
• Chopped Onions
• Chopped Tomatoes
• Slit green chilies- optional
• Oil
• whole- Cinnamon, Bay leaf, Cloves and Cardamom
• Fresh Coconut Milk

Process:

• Let’s start with the marination first. Take a bowl, add the Ginger-garlic paste mix, curd, some turmeric, salt, curry powder (little generously), mix them well. Now quote the chicken pieces into this spice mix and let it rest for at least 20 minutes or more.
• I had fried some thinly sliced onions into golden brown and kept them aside, this is optional but enhances the taste of the dish.
• Take a pot, add some oil and let it get hot. Now take the chicken pieces, with your hand, wipe out the excess spice mix from the chicken pieces and keep those spice mix aside, and shallow fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side.
• Once the chicken is done take them off the pot. There should be some oil remaining inside the pot, if that’s enough then no need to add any extra oil, otherwise add some more oil. (If there’s some burnt remaining of the chicken on the pot sticking at the bottom, don’t worry, it will be taken care off while cooking the rice)
• In that oil add the whole spices, let them infuse a bit for about 10-20 seconds. Now add the chopped onions and tomatoes. Stir them for a bit till they soften.
• Now add the left over spice mix, and let them cook till the raw smell of the ginger-garlic is gone.
• Add the rice (do measure the rice with a cup or bowl before pouring into the pot And don’t forget to soak the rice in water for 30 minutes before cooking). Stir for about 2-3 minutes.
• Now add the coconut milk. I used normal grain rice, so my quantity for coconut milk was: No. of cups of rice + 1.5 cups extra coconut milk. Now if you don’t want to use coconut milk completely, you may use a mix of water and coconut milk. ** coconut milk is very essential for Thai food, but if you aren’t fussy about it, then use any nut based milk, cow milk or veg stock, chicken stock or just simple plain water.
• Now mix everything, let it come to a boil, add salt, put the flame into low. Add the chicken pieces on top, sprinkle the fried onions, spread some green chilies, some coriander and cover the pot for 15-20 minutes.

• After 15 minutes, check the rice, if it’s done then well and good, other wise add some boiling water if required and cook the rice little more. If it’s done, then switch the flame off, cover the pot for another 5-10 minutes and its ready.

Trust me.. It was so far the best One Pot rice I have cooked. The colour of the rice, the taste, flavour everything came along just in order and it couldn’t have been better.. As much as I love, LOOVE having One pot rice, I can have this particular rice anytime. Give it a try and you will know what do I mean..

After Cooking, if there’s still some burnt elements remain in the pan and if you are worried about cleaning it– DON’T WORRY!! I am here to give you a Solution:

Once the pot is cooled down, spread some baking soda on the surface, then add normal vinegar on it and let it sit for a while, say about 15 minutes. Then just scrub the pot with your regular detergent powder and scrubber. Voila.. Won’t even seem you cooked something in it an hour ago!!

Home Made Curry Powder Recipe:

Dry Roast the below ingredients all together in the proportion mentioned and grind them in the Mixer grinder once cooled down completely.

• One 3-4″ cinnamon stick
• 5-6 cloves
• 4 cardamoms
• 2 teaspoon whole Cumin
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander
• 2 teaspoon whole Fennel
• 1 bay leaf
• 10 whole Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Fenugreek
• 1 Star anise
• 1/4 of a Nutmeg
• 1/4 of a Mace
• (You may also add 1-2 dry red chilies & 1/2 teaspoon of whole mustered seeds)

Inspired by: @Marion’s Kitchen