Chicken and Rice

I just started getting Everyday Food Magazine and absolutely love it! It's so small, but packed with great recipes. The December issue has a section called "make it your own" featuring chicken and rice dishes done four different ways. The main image of this was the prepared meal freshly prepared resting in an enamel coated dutch oven! I was immediately hooked. Not only do I love chicken, but I just got the best deal on a Martha Stewart 5 Qt Dutch Oven and have been dieing to use it. This was perfect.

The four variations include: Chicken and rice with corn and sun-dried tomatoes, spiced yellow rice with chicken and veggies, Moroccan chicken and rice with chickpeas, and my choice: chicken with rice, broccoli and scallions. Yum!


On top of this being the first Everday Food recipe I prepared and my first time using my new dutch oven, this was also the first dish that required me to cut up and use a whole chicken! Boy, that was an adventure. The recipe only states that you need a whole chicken, cut in 10 pieces. Okay? So how do I get it into 10 pieces? I have no clue! I went to Foodnetwork.com and found Alexandra Guarnaschelli's how-to video. It seemed easy enough. I soon learned it was not! After chopping away for 20 minutes. It wasn't perfect, but I definitely had that chicken taken apart. Alas, I was on to cooking!


Recipe:
1 whole chicken (3 to 4 pounds), cut into 10 pieces (good luck!)
course salt and ground pepper
2 tbsp veggie oil
1 small yellow onion, diced medium
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, diced medium
6 scallions, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only)
3 cups broccoli florets
1 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp red pepper
1 1/2 cups long-grain rice (I used brown rice)
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or water

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lower third. Pat chicken dry with paper towel and season with salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven or heavy pot with tight fitting lid, heat oil over high heat. Cook chicken, skin side down until golden and crisp, about 6 minutes. Flip chicken and cook until browned, 6 minutes. Transfer to a large plate.
2) Reduce heat to medium and add onion, garlic, and celery to pot. Cook, stirring and scrapping up browned bits with a wooden spoon, until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in in mustard powder, thyme, red pepper flakes and rice and cook 1 minute.
3) Add broccoli and scallions and season with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken, skin side up, on top of the rice mixture. Bring to a boil, cover pot, and place in the oven. Bake until chicken is cooked through and liquid is absorbed, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

This may sound like a lot of work, but it was pretty easy and super delicious. The light flavors of the celery and broccoli mix with the heat of the pepper flakes created such a nice balance of flavors and meshed perfectly with the rice and chicken. I will definitely be making this again soon! (And when I do, I will try to replicate the image of the chicken and rice in the pot...I'm a dope and forgot to get that shot.)