This oven baked chicken and rice is my absolute favourite dish right now! It's so easy to make and the result is scrumptious, juicy, tasty chicken and flavoursome rice! Oh, and budget friendly too!
1kg/2.2lbs chicken drumsticks/thigh mixskin on, bone-in
1½cupsuncooked white rice(note 1)
2cupschicken stockhot
1¼cupswaterhot
1onionfinely diced
2clovesgarlicminced
2sprigsfresh lemon thyme
salt & pepper
Chicken rub
1tablespoonfresh lemon juice
3sprigsfresh lemon thymeuse leaves only
½teaspooncayenne pepper
1teaspoonsweet paprika
salt & pepper
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Instructions
Preheat oven to 180°C/360°F (fan-forced).
Mix chicken with chicken rub ingredients thoroughly.
In a medium/hot pan, sear chicken pieces on both sides until golden and fat of chicken thighs rendered. Remove chicken from pan. (see note 2)
In the same pan, saute onion and garlic until soft, about 3 minutes.
Add water, stock, rice, fresh lemon thyme sprigs and bring to boil. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Add chicken, spread evenly across the pan.
Lid on, bake in the oven for 35 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the lid off and bake remainder 5 minutes without the lid to crisp up the chicken skin.
Notes
Note 1. Rinse the rice before cooking rising washes away the surface starch of rice and thus ensures rice turns out fluffy every time. Note 2. If using only chicken thighs chicken thighs are fattier than drumsticks thus after searing and rendering the fat of thigh skin you'll find quite a lot of oil left in the pan. Simply wipe majority of it off with scrunched up kitchen paper towels, leaving a little behind to saute onions and garlic. No need to wipe fat off if using a combination of thighs and drumsticks or just drumsticks. Reheating if reheating on a pan, simply spread rice and chicken out evenly across the pan with a lid on for a few minutes. Putting a lid on will ensure the rice stays soft and not dry out. If reheating in a microwave, loosely cover. You may need to drizzle a little water on the rice to prevent it from drying out.