If you felt like you’ve been doing a lot of dishes lately, you’re not alone. I have been running my dish washer every other day since we started shelter in place. Not surprising though: three meals a day at home times the number of people you have. Not to mention all the dirty dishes and pots and pans used to make all the meals. Hats off to the people who do all their dishes by hand. I don’t know how you do it!
That’s why I wanted to do a one pot chicken rice dinner. It’s so appealing – just one single pot to cook everything in. I’m particularly happy with this dish because it used everything in my pantry or freezer, with the exception of the fresh mushrooms which can totally be excluded. I’m also pretty excited that I could make a big pot of food and eat it for a few nights. It’s week 3 for me and I’m starting to lose that enthusiasm for cooking every night.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can use what you have at your disposal to make this dish! Never feel that you need to have the exact the ingredients to do this. The most important thing to remember is you want loads of umami. Mushrooms, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chicken, fish sauce, miso, cheese, truffle, and garlic. Just throw it in! You want to pack your dish with all the flavors. I used chicken thighs and brown rice but here are some alternatives to consider:
- Brown rice, use instead: jasmine rice, grains like farro, oat, barley, or quinoa
- Chicken thigh, use instead: with pork belly, skirt steak, or even seafood like shrimp (you’ll need to decrease the cook time drastically for seafood)
- Sake, use instead: sherry, brandy, or any white wine
- Mirin, use instead: white vinegar or apple vinegar
I hope this recipe inspires you to just throw everything in a pot and make something delicious. Go crazy! There’s no right or wrong reason with cooking, especially not right now. I’d love to see what you create with your pantry and freezer foods in a single pot. Just remember to have fun with it! Keep tasting and make it what you want to eat.
One Pot Chicken Rice
Ingredients
- 5 chicken thighs, defrosted
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 10 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 cup shallots, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pack (3.5 ounce) beech mushrooms, optional
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 2 tablespoons shoyu
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 inch knob of garlic, smashed
- 2 cups brown rice, rinsed
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup corn, frozen or canned
- 1 cup frozen spinach
- Salt
- Pepper
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 400F.
- Step 2 Place dried shiitake into a bowl of hot water to rehydrate.
- Step 3 Season chicken with generously with salt and pepper on both sides of the thigh.
- Step 4 In a dutch oven over medium high heat, add oil. Sear chicken thighs skin side down for about 3 minutes for a golden sear. Flip chicken and sear for another 3 minutes.
- Step 5 Place dutch oven into oven and cook for 30 minutes. Do not cover dutch oven!
- Step 6 Squeeze out water from shiitake mushrooms and cut into strips.
- Step 7 Take out dutch oven and place chicken onto a plate (you can totally reuse this plate to eat later).
- Step 8 Return dutch oven to the stove over medium heat. Add shallots, garlic, and beech mushrooms and cook until fragrant.
- Step 9 Deglaze the bottom of the pot by adding mirin, sake, sesame oil, shoyu, and Worcestershire sauce. Make sure to scratch off all the bits around the pan! This is all flavor.
- Step 10 Add rice, shiitake mushrooms, and smashed garlic and stir to combine.
- Step 11 Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Then lower heat to a slow simmer. Cover with lid and cook for 15 minutes.
- Step 12 Add corn and spinach and mix well. Return chicken to the top of the rice. Cover with lid again and cook another 15 minutes.
- Step 13 Serve with a sprinkle of togarashi, aonori, or Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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