If you’re looking for a recipe to cook in the oven that takes little of your time you should try this chicken baked on rice recipe. It ticks all the boxes and can be cooked in bulk making it a perfect meal prep recipe cooked in the oven.
You can use chicken with the bone, without the bone or even chicken without skin. It’s completely up to you that’s how versatile this recipe is and it’s all cooked the same way.
I’ve cooked it with thighs on the bone, drumsticks, thigh fillets, breast fillets and even breast on the bone and Merrylands work well. For a budget meal drumsticks work really well, and kids love them.
Equipment
- A deep oven proof pan
- Mixing bowl
- Aluminium foil
- Knife
- Timer
- Meat thermometer
Ingredients for chicken bake on rice
- 1 kilo of chicken either fillets or on the bone
- Rice
- Butter
- Mixed herbs
- Garlic
How to cook chicken baked on rice
What I love about this recipe is that it’s very versatile and you can put your spin on it to accommodate for the fussy of eaters.
The recipe calls for 1kg / 2.2 lb of chicken either on the bone or fillet. You naturally get more flavour with the bone but if you have fussy eaters that complain about eating off the bone, then using a thigh fillet or breast fillet also works well.
- Start by preheating your oven to 180C / 350F degrees
- Wash your chicken and remove any fat.
- Using an oven proof dish add your butter, garlic and rice and chicken stock and give it a good stir.
- Put the chicken into a mixing bowl with a little bit of olive oil. Massage the oil into the chicken and then add your spice mix rubbing it into all parts of the chicken both top and bottom.
- Place the chicken on top of the rice making sure that the chicken is not overlapping each other but it’s fine for the chicken to be touching.
- Cover the dish with aluminium foil and place in the preheated oven for 40 – 45 minutes.
- Once your chicken has reached the cooking time. Take it out and check to see that the chicken is cooked, remove the foil and placed back into the oven for a further 10 or so minutes to brown
Variations to chicken baked on rice
I like to mix things up and put a variation to this dish just to keep the kids interested.
Try adding small chopped up bits of zucchini or eggplant and mix it in with the rice and then place the chicken on top.
Also try adding pasta sauce on top of the chicken and then sprinkle shredded cheese on top, this works well with breast or thigh.
Serving suggestions for chicken baked on rice
The best part about this dish is that it is a complete meal so when it comes to serving suggestions it’s a matter of just scooping up a piece of chicken along with the rice.
You could always add a coleslaw or a Greek salad if you find it’s not enough.
Storing baked chicken on rice
Because this dish is quite filling it works well for lunch and dinner. When we cook this as a dinner we put all our servings in one container, usually a 1 liter container. This includes the chicken, rice and vegetables if you’ve added it.
Single lunch serves can also be divided up and placed into the fridge. It’s best to put into a single compartment container because it will require reheating.
FAQ
Not all ovens are the same so your time may need to be adjusted. I would first check using a meat thermometer and the temperature needs to be 75C / 165F. Put the foil back over the dish and place into the oven for 5 – 10 min and check again.
When reheating rice unless it has sauce within the dish. You should add a couple of spoonfuls of water on the rice. This will create some steam and not make the rice dry out.
Not at all. The stock is there to help the rice cook, you could use water if you really wanted to. But the stock adds flavour to the rice and chicken. I’ve made the recipe with vegetable stock and it tasted nice.