If you like fried rice or risotto, you’ll probably like pilaf, which is a kind of rice dish often served with chicken and veggies. You can make chicken pilaf with anything you have on hand, but this recipe is a good place to start. It’s a healthy, colourful dish that can be prepared in advance for a quick lunch at the office or a relaxing evening meal after a busy day.
Chicken pilaf tips
Browning the chicken, like browning beef, results in a flavour boost due to the caramelization or maillard reaction. Instead of constantly stirring, absorbing, and stirring again as you would with risotto, the rice cooks together with the rest of the meal. When preparing mushrooms as an accompaniment, do not add any liquid to the pan. This will allow them to crisp up. Spice things up by throwing in some chilli or paprika.
Chicken pilaf is the next best thing to risotto and fried rice. You may experiment with different ingredients and preparation methods each day of the week with this recipe.
Chicken pilaf recipe
Course: Main
Cuisine: Global
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 4 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients
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4 chicken pieces
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3 tbsp. olive oil
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1 onion
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1 green or red pepper
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2 sticks celery
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250g long-grain rice
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1 chicken stock cube
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1 clove garlic, crushed
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¾ tsp curry powder
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¼ tsp dried mixed herbs
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¼ tsp chilli powder
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250g tomatoes
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1 cup mushrooms, sliced
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packe frozen peas
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salt and pepper
Method
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan and fry chicken pieces fairly quickly until golden brown on both sides, then reduce heat, cover and continue to cook until tender, about 20 minutes.
- Remove joints from pan and leave to drain on absorbent kitchen paper.
- Chop onion and celery, de-seed and slice pepper. Fry in fat remaining in pan for a few minutes until they are soft. Add rice and fry for a further few minutes.
- Add 600ml water, tomatoes, stock cube, garlic, curry powder, mixed herbs and chilli powder. Bring mixture to boiling point, stir with a fork, then cover and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until all liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.
- Fry mushrooms, with the remaining oil for a few minutes in a small pan.
- When rice mixture is ready stir in chicken and peas. Reheat mixture, stirring frequently, and add salt and pepper to season it well.