yum yum give me some!

The Hubs loves his rice.  He grew up on Basmati as his family’s starch staple and probably would eat it every day if I let him.  I am really good at making sticky rice, or rice you forget about and bake in casseroles.  Persian rice?  Not so much.  Persian rice has a million steps and timing is everything.  The interior grains cannot stick together (sacrilege!) and yet the outer part touching the pan should form a dark crispy brown shell.  This one pot arborio rice recipe, however, is quick, simple, and tastes great!  Plus, o happy day, it’s only one-pot clean to wash!  The gingery, garlicky, rice with the snap of fresh scallions and tender chicken is a perfect bite.  Arborio is actually an Italian short-grain rice typically used for risotto and rice pudding.  Pour some cupfuls of chicken broth in with your arborio rice and in 30 minutes dinner is served.  In the end you have perfect, beautiful sticky rice.  But it’s supposed to be sticky, so it’s ok.

arborio!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
• 2 bone-in skin-on chicken drumsticks
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias, white and green parts separated
• 2 tablespoons zested ginger
• 3 garlic cloves, zested
• 10 baby bella mushrooms, stems removed and thickly sliced (1/2″)
• 2 two-fingered pinches of red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 3 1/2 cups chicken broth
• scant handful of chopped cilantro, for garnish

Preheat your oven to 375.  Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Season both sides with a few cranks of salt and pepper.  Heat olive oil in a dutch oven (or oven safe pot with tight-fitting lid) over medium heat and once hot, add chicken, skin side down, and sear until skin is crisp and golden, about 8-10 minutes.  Sear only on the skin side, then remove from pot and transfer to a plate.

I know it looks delicious, but you can’t eat it yet!

While your chicken is searing, start prepping your other ingredients!

After the chicken is seared, add 1/2 cup white wine to the same pot, scraping the bottom to release all the browned bits.  (Yum.)  After all the bottom scrapings are released, stir in scallion whites, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, and mushrooms, cooking 3-5 minutes, until the wine cooks out and the sauce slightly thickens.  Pour the chicken broth and rice into the pot and bring to a boil.  After it is boiling, remove from heat and nestle the chicken atop the rice/mushrooms, skin side up.

chicken hot tub

Cover pot and bake in oven at 375 for 30 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.  It will look like this when finished:

can you smell it?

Garnish final plates with scallion greens and cilantro. Collect accolades.

The Hubs eats 2 pieces of chicken, but I opt for one.

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