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Chicken and Rice for Beginners

By May 20, 2013October 2nd, 201337 Comments


Before this blog, before my diary.ย Before the phrase โ€œcut and pasteโ€ conjured up anything more than scissors and glue, there was my spiral black kitchen book. The book is filled with recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers that I felt were manageable for someone like me โ€” a twenty-something recent college grad whose spice rack contained three things: salt, pepper, and garlic salt. ย Those of you whoโ€™ve readย Dinner: A Love Storyย wonโ€™t be surprised to hear that most of the sepia-toned, peeling-at-the-corners clippings come from theย New York Times Dining pages. The reporters who wrote for that section in the 90s were my rock stars (Marian Burros, Amanda Hesser, Rozanne Gold, Mark Bittman, Ruth Reichl) and Iโ€™d look forward to Wednesday, the day โ€œDiningโ€ was published, the way most of my newly workforce-embedded friends looked forward to Happy Hour on Fridays.

One of the recipes glued (literally glued) in there is a Bittman classic from his โ€œMinimalistโ€ column. My scissors practically walked themselves to the newspaper as soon as I read the title: โ€œChicken with Rice, the Easy Way.โ€ (I have always been a sucker for simplicity.) And last weekend, when I came upon it, I couldnโ€™t believe Iโ€™d never pointed you in its direction until now. It strikes me as the perfect dinner for new cooks, new parents, and new toddlers experimenting with new foods. The best thing about a dinner like this, is that once you master the framework, it becomes endlessly customizable โ€” one of those recipes that you forgot ever had a recipe. You can stir in cooked sausage crumbles or asparagus, green peas, sugar snap peas, green beans, mushrooms, or freshly grated Parm during the last few minutes of cooking. You can add ginger and a little red curry paste to the onions, mix in coconut milk with the broth, then finish with lime instead of lemon. Some cilantro instead of parsley. This week, fifteen years after cutting and pasting the recipe into my files, some version of it is on my line-up, for sure.


Chicken and Rice
From Mark Bittmanโ€™s โ€œMinimalistโ€ column, New York Times. Iโ€™m guessing you have everything you need for it in the pantry and fridge right this very second.ย Pictured above: My little black book of recipes covered with business cards from restaurants.

2 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, about 8 ounces, peeled and sliced
salt and pepper
2 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
1 1/2 cups white rice (such as long-grain, jasmine or basmati โ€” brown rice takes longer to tenderize and you donโ€™t want to overcook your chicken)
handful herbs, chopped
juice from 1/2 a lemon

Bring broth and one cup of water to a boil. While you are waiting for it to boil, add olive oil to a large skillet (that has a lid) set over medium-high heat. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cook until onions soften, about 4 minutes.

Add rice to the pan and stir until each grain is covered in oil. Nestle chicken in rice, add salt and pepper, then pour in the broth (or water). Reduce heat to medium-low and cover.

Cook 2o minutes, until all water is absorbed and chicken is cooked through. Garnish with parsley and a squeeze of lemon.

Inside the book: Recipes I made (and still make) all the time (left) next to recipes that were complete failures, and that I only ever made once (right).

ย 

37 Comments

  • Avatar Robyn says:

    I love your old scrapbook. Easy dinners are the most comforting soul food

  • Avatar Lisa says:

    One pot wonders! Okay this is really two, but Iโ€™ll let it slip since I can wash the broth pot while the meal is finishing! This will probably be happening in my house tonight! Thanks Jennyโ€ฆand Mark ๐Ÿ™‚

  • shari@myjudythefoodie says:

    yay~ love this and making it tonight. Perfect idea for my sick 8 year old.

  • shari@myjudythefoodie says:

    making this tonight! chicken is already defrosting in the sink. thanks.

  • Avatar Laura Z. says:

    What went wrong with Josieยดs sweet potato spread? Is that from Josieโ€™s on the UWS? If so, I love that! Why doesnโ€™t it work? Can you share that recipe?

  • Avatar Carrie says:

    Jenny, since this starts out almost like a risotto, Iโ€™m guessing I could sub arborio rice for regular long-grain?

  • Avatar Luisa says:

    I have almost the exact same notebook, with clippings from the same places. Iโ€™d love to compare it sometime โ€“ we must have so much overlap! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Avatar My Inspired Table says:

    I love that you kept the notebook. I did almost the same thing, except I used rubber cement (Iโ€™m showing my age) to glue the recipes (from Bon Appetit and Gourmet) to 3 x 5 index cards and I kept them in a recipe box. As the years went by the glue became yellow and some of the recipe fell off. Thanks for the memories and a great recipe.

  • Avatar Emily T says:

    What happens with the asparagus?

  • Avatar joan says:

    Yes! I make chicken and rice often. A meal that is easy and satisfying. I agree, you can throw almost anything in with it to jazz up the flavor.

  • Avatar Zelda says:

    I love simple, one-pot dishes like this. Hereโ€™s a Japanese version:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2011/nov/14/how-cook-japanese-rice-video?INTCMP=SRCH

  • Avatar Andrea says:

    Hey Jennyโ€“ Is that 2 whole chicken breasts or 2 halves? Thx!

  • Avatar M says:

    Fulton Five! One of our favorite restaurants!

    Great post, will be making it this week. Have all the ingredients on hand, which of course is the beauty of this kind of dish.

  • Jenny Jenny says:

    M: Us, too. Funnyโ€ฆwith the food scene exploding in Charleston we havenโ€™t gone to FF in a while, but itโ€™s still open right? When weโ€™re in town, we always peek down Fulton Street to make sureโ€ฆ

  • Avatar M says:

    @ Jenny โ€“ yes โ€“ itโ€™s still open and still amazing!

    Tried this recipe last night, and it will definitely be a keeper in the rotation. We did chicken thighs, since thatโ€™s what I had on hand.

    Also, as soon as I put the onions in the pan, my husband announced he was going for a jog. So in an effort to make the dish take longer to cook (when does that ever happen?!), I carmelized the onions first, then followed the rest of the recipe. It was FABULOUS.

  • Avatar Meg says:

    Thatโ€™s fantastic! I love your book. I have a similar thing, though an electronic version- when I was 22 I started emailing myself recipes and theyโ€™re still in a folder in my email account. The earliest in from 2001 Some are now recipes I know by heart and others are one I have yet to try. I have purged the failures. And many came from the NYT- one of my favorites was 101 Simple Meals ready in 10 minutes or Less (for city dwellers in the summer without access to a grill). I have since moved out of the city and have a grill, but always revisit these recipes when it gets warm.

  • Carlinne @Cook with 2 Chicks says:

    I love the pictures of your recipe scrapbook!

  • Avatar Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory says:

    Simple but delicious!

  • Avatar Shifra says:

    This looks great- can I just ask what you did with the asparagus?

  • Avatar Sally says:

    @Meg โ€” I also save recipes in my email account. When I try them, I either move them to another folder (Favorite Recipes) or delete them. I also print a copy of the favorites so I have a hard copy as well as the one saved in my email account.

  • Avatar Lizzie says:

    I was wanting a chicken casserole right NOW and flipped to your blog. Youโ€™re a lifesaver!

    Thanks for a great blog โ€“ Iโ€™m not a mom yet, but my parents managed to have dinner with us every night growing up and I can tell you, itโ€™s a method that works!! Parents out there โ€“ all this hard work will pay off someday. I promise! Some of my treasured memories of my family are sitting at the dinner table talking about our days. (Also a game of napkin basketball into cups waiting for my sister to finish her veggies) When weโ€™re all together eating dinner now, it still makes for a great night of laughter and fun.

  • Avatar Scheherazade says:

    I made this today and canโ€™t wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow. Or maybe Iโ€™ll have a midnight snack. I made my own curry paste with serranos, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce, coriander and some oil and mixed it in with the onions. I also used half vegetable broth/half coconut milk. Delish and my other half just declared it as being one of my dishes now (he read the Jenny/Andy dish part of the book).

  • Avatar Blair says:

    Hi Jenny!
    This seems like a recipe that would really be a big hit around here. But I canโ€™t figure out when does the asparagus go in?

  • Avatar Jennifer says:

    This was fabulous. We all loved this tonight!! And though I would like to think of myself as more than a beginner cook, I cannot cook rice. Ever. Bizarre. And my boneless skinless chicken breasts typically= rubber. But this was so so good. Husband and kids loved it. We did cilantro and lime and canโ€™t wait to add new things!!

  • Avatar lori says:

    okay, so short grain brown rice would not work for this dish?

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