One Pot Chicken & Lemon Rice

This sounds really good. You will sear the chicken in a pan on the stove and will bake the rice and chicken together in the oven.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Servings servings

Ingredients

For the Chicken & Marinade

5 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
1-2 lemons, use all zest + 4 tablespoons juice
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Rice

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 cup dry long grain rice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, fresh or from powder
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper, to taste

For Garnish

fresh parsley, chopped
lemon zest

Instructions

Add the chicken and marinade ingredients to a large zip lock bag and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Leaving the chicken to marinate overnight in the fridge would result in flavor.
Preheat your oven to 180 C. Remove chicken from the marinade and reserve the remaining marinade.
Heat 1/2 tablespoon in a large oven safe pan, cast iron pan would be perfect. If you do not have a oven safe pan, just use a regular pan you have and I will point out when to transfer the contents of the pan to a large baking dish.
When the pan is hot, add the chicken skin side down and cook until golden brown, flip and cook the other side to golden brown. You are just searing, no need to cook through. Remove the chicken and set aside.
Pour out fat and wipe out with a paper towel then heat the pan again with 1 tablespoon of oil, add the onion and saute until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the rice ingredients and the marinade you reserved. Stir and let the mixture come to a boil, let it boil for 30 seconds then remove from heat.

Using an Oven Safe Pan

Place the chicken on top of the rice, cover with a lid or foil and place in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, then remove the cover or foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice and the rice is tender.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving, garnish with parsley and lemon zest.

Using a Baking Dish

If using a glass Pyrex dish, first rule is NEVER add a hot item to a dish at room temperature, there is a chance the dish will shatter.
Second rule is never heat the dish when it is empty.
You need to heat the dish first, do this by adding water to the dish, about 1/2 inch, heat the dish for 10 minutes or so in the oven, remove from the oven, then pour in the rice mixture, then top with the chicken, cover with foil, then place in the oven to bake.
Bake for 35 minutes, then remove the cover or foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice and the rice is tender.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving, garnish with parsley and lemon zest.

Notes

Figure about 70 Baht for the chicken. If you buy quarters and cut the thighs from the legs, you will have much larger thighs, reserve the legs for another dish. For 5 servings, this is about 42 cents per serving.

Adapted from an internet recipe.