One-Pot Rice Recipe || Healthy One-Pot Chicken Rice Recipe||
How many one-pot rice can I try? As many healthy and easy recipes exist!! I am a Bengali you see.. & I love my rice. You can’t keep a Bengali away from her rice, fish and sweets or in short good food. But rice is above all. And I just looove my rice recipes, be it biryani, pulao, fried rice.. I love them all.. Aall. SO it’s pretty clear that I keep looking for different types of easy one-pot rice recipes, mostly they are almost the same but a little different than the last. Does that make sense to you? Well if the taste is different, then it definitely will.
So what have I got this week?? I mean weekend? I tried this one-pot rice recipe in Greek style.. Opa!! It’s super easy.. all you need is a few good juicy lemons and your one-pot rice is ready.. Naaaa not that simple, am I J K rowling oo?? You will need a few more easily available in the kitchen ingredients and you are good to go.. So here’s the recipe for you.
Ingredients:
- Regular long grain rice: 3 cups (you may use Basmati rice)
- Garlic finely chopped or grated: about 8-10 cloves
- Chicken: 500-700 gms
- Onion: chopped 2 medium sizes
- Cumin powder: 1 teaspoon
- salt-pepper- as per taste
- Oil of your choice
- Oregano: 1 teaspoon
- Lemon: 2 medium size
- Coriander leaves- chopped
- Charred or roasted Capcicum or bell paper: Red, Yellow or Green (I used all 3 of them) 1 each/ chopped
Recipe:
- Marinate the chicken pieces (I always prefer chicken pieces with bones) with: juice of 1 lemon ( I tried to be little safer with lemon, you may use little more), cumin powder, salt, pepper, 1/2 of chopped garlic. Marinate the chicken for about 20 minutes.
- Take a pot, once it’s hot and smoking, add oil, and fry (not deep fry, shallow fry) the chicken pieces in that oil, cook each side for 3-4 minutes, then remove them from the pot and keep aside. *** DO NOT discard the remaining marinate of the chicken.
- Don’t worry if your pot looks rough brown at the bottom, it will change form very soon. On that same rough surface pot, add little more oil (only if there’s no oil left after cooking the chicken). Add the onions, cook them until they are soften, add the remaining half garlic. Cook for about a minute or till the smell of fried garlic fills your nostrils.
- Now add the left over marinate. And cook till the raw smell of cumin powder is gone.
- ** I have always seen that if raw cumin powder (instead of dry roasted cumin powder) is used in any dish, it’s necessary to cook the spice nicely or with patience, otherwise the dish doesn’t taste that good. That’s why instead of mixing the marinate with the water and pour it over the rice, I cooked it properly.
- Once the spice removes some oil or starts sticking to the pan, add the charred bell papers (I charred them at home), Cook them for a minute.. Now it’s time to add the rice (make sure the rice is soaked in water for about 30 minutes minimum).
- Stir the rice for a bit, for about 2-3 minutes. Then add the water, for 3 cups of rice, I used 4+3/4 cups of water. (As I keep saying the quantity of water depends on the type or quality of rice you are using. For basmati rice, it should be no. of cups of rice + 1 cup extra water. To add more water in the middle of cooking, always add hot water, otherwise it affects the taste very badly)
- Once the water comes to a boil, add salt, pepper, another juice of 1 lemon (you may use more lemon juice), some coriander leaves ( I love coriander more than parsley, so leaving this choice to you); reduce the heat to lowest. Add the chicken pieces over the rice, cover the pan and let it cook for about 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, gently stir the rice (you may use a fork here as the professional chefs will tell you), basically try to push the rice on the above layer towards the bottom of the pan, then cover the pan once again and let it cook for another 7-10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, switch the heat off. keep the pot cover for another 10 minutes as a standing time. And that’s it, it’s ready to eat.
- One thing I forgot to add in the picture was lemon, serve this dish with some lemon slices and salad consisting Onions, cucumber and red beetroot.
- As I play safe with lemon, I loved adding more fresh lemon juice on my dish whiule eating it and it was smacking good.
What do you think.. is it worth trying?? of course, it is.. Weekend calls for good food, then weekend calls for spending a slumbering afternoon, more of lying on the sofa, enjoying a siesta than sitting straight on the chair.. this is your recipe for those lazy, ‘me time’ weekends.. What do you say??
Happy Eating…
Inspired by @Dimitra’s Kitchen
TurtleGotWings 