Budget Chicken and Rice Meal

 
This recipe is an old Brazilian favourite.  I cook it a lot… It’s simple, tasty, cheap (if you are on a tight budget) and it will feed a large group.

I will show you the way I do it… (Some of the Brazilian aunties and grandmothers will probably not agree 😉 ).

Budget Chicken and Rice Meal

2015-01-28 16:26:44

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Ingredients

1. Chicken (drumsticks or thighs 1 or 2 pieces per person)
2. Rice ( 1/2 cup per person, or if you have a big appetite add bit extra, Basmati is my rice of choice)
3. 1 x Onion
4. 2 x Garlic Clove
5. Chicken stock
6. Salt
7. Pepper

Instructions

1. Get 3 table spoons of oil onto a pan ( i use a bigish pan, as the rice expands a lot)
2. When the oil is hot add the chicken
3. Cook the chicken for a while, let it get some color. (the bottom of the pan will get a bit brown, don't worry that's all good flavor)
4. Finely chop the onion and garlic, add it to the pan, with the already browned chicken
5. Let the onions sweat, keep mixing it, you don't want the onions and garlic to burn.
6. add a cup of water and put a lid on, turn the heat down to medium.
7. Let it cook for about 20 minutes, keeping an eye on the water, it will thicken and or evaporate, add some more water if needed. (all you want is for the chicken to soften)
8. Once the chicken has soften up, add the rice, mix it around with all the leftover liquid.
9. Dissolve your stock cube (chicken or vegetable stock) into 1 cup of boiling water
10. Now for every cup of rice add 1 1/2 cups of water (counting the stock, the water level should be about 1 to 2 cm above the rice level)
11. Add salt and pepper to taste.
12. Leave the heat on medium, put the lid back on, let it cook for 10 min.
13. Check the water level, if the level has dropped to bellow the rice level, drop the heat to minimum and put the lid back on again.
14. Cook for another 10 minutes
15. remove the lid, now turn the rice ( with a big spoon turn the rice so the rice at the top goes to the bottom of the pan and the bottom goes to the top)
16. Taste some grains, it should be nice and soft, no bite to it .
17. If the rice still has some bite to it, remove it from the fire, put the lid back on and let it steam for a few more minutes.
18. enjoy

Tips

1. Might take a few tries to get the rice right... remember if in doubt, always add less water, you can always add more (bit by bit) at the end. (once you master this rice making technic, you will never go back)
2. Don't be scare to brown your chicken, caramelisation = flavor
3. If I'm using drumsticks, i trim the ends, just looks nicer, i also cut across the flesh, it speeds up cooking.

Serving Suggestion

1. Serve it with a generous portion of tomato vinaigrette ....hmmmm
2. enjoy your delicious Budget Chicken and Rice Meal

By Andre Queiroz

Brazilian Chef https://www.brazilianchef.co.uk/

Andre