It’s like FRIED RICE and Chinese Chicken, all made in one pot!! You’ll love the savoury flavour of the rice, and how the Asian chicken marinade adds great flavour with just a quick 10 minute marinade.
Plus, there’s a load of veggies mixed through so this One Pot Chinese Chicken and Rice is a complete meal!
CHINESE CHICKEN AND RICE – A ONE POT WONDER!
Hands up everyone who would make fried rice more often but you never seem to have day old cooked rice when the craving hits?
If you’ve got your hand raised high – then this one is for YOU!! The rice in this recipe tastes like fried rice but it’s made from scratch using uncooked rice. With the added bonus of a tasty Asian marinated chicken AND veggies to make a complete dinner in one pot!
DOUBLE DUTY: ASIAN CHICKEN MARINADE AND SAUCE
This One Pot Chinese Chicken and Rice starts off with a simple Asian chicken marinade that doubles as the sauce to flavour the rice.
The Sauce-Marinade is made with just soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine (see recipe for subs), Oyster Sauce and pepper. In my world, this is the bare minimum I would put in a Chinese sauce or marinade – whether a stir fry sauce, noodles or a pouring sauce.
Anything less and the flavour will taste flat. Both Oyster Sauce and the Chinese cooking wine are what adds complexity to this sauce.
If you can’t get or can’t consume Oyster Sauce, the best substitute in this recipe is Hoisin Sauce. You will get a slight Five Spice flavour from the Hoisin and it’s fantastic!
The Sauce-Marinade is used as a quick 10 minute marinade for the chicken before being tipped into the pot to flavour the rice. You could absolutely marinade overnight if you want – but you’ll get enough flavour in the dish with just 10 minutes.
HOW I MAKE CHINESE CHICKEN AND RICE
This is a straightforward recipe but there’s a few things I specifically do to achieve the tastiest outcome with the least effort – this is, after all, a quick and easy meal but that’s no reason to skimp on quality!
A) SEPARATE STEMS FROM LEAFY PARTS of Asian greens.The purpose of this so we can add the stems to cook with the rice, then just wilt the leafy part using residual heat while the rice is resting.
Apply this rule to any vegetables you use in this recipe. Cook things like carrots, peas, capsicum/bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and corn with the rice, and wilt delicate things like baby spinach while the rice is resting.
B) SEAR marinated chicken to brown the outside, but keep it raw on the inside – it will finish cooking with the rice. Caramelisation not only adds flavour to the chicken but the browning left in the pot forms part of the flavour base for the rice.
C) Place the CHICKEN ON TOP of the rice to finish cooking while the rice cooks. This way, the juices drip into the rice and we can preserve the caramelised surface on the chicken which would sweat off if fully submerged in the liquid.
D) REST RICE and WILT Leafy Greens. Resting the rice for 10+ minutes is a key step with any rice dish. That is how to ensure your rice comes out fluffy rather than gluey.
In this particular recipe, I use the residual heat trapped in the pot while the rice is resting to wilt the leafy part of the Asian greens.
Then, once the rice is rested and ready for fluffing, the leafy greens are wilted and can be tossed through the rice.
HIGHLY VERSATILE RECIPE
Like many recipes on my site, this recipe lends itself to all sorts of variations. It can take more vegetables, it can be made with mince meat (ground meat) rather than chicken pieces – just cook it with the sauce then proceed with the recipe as written.
You could even make it with fish and/or prawns/shrimp – but I’d cook them separately first and only return them to the pot while the rice is resting just to warm them through.
I often get messages on recipes where readers hesitantly say “I hope it’s ok that I tinkered with your recipe….” and I always respond – “YES OF COURSE!!!” I love that you can make my recipes your own and adapt it to your taste.
So if you tinker with this recipe, tell me what you do! I want to know! – Nagi x
More One-Pot Chicken and Rice
Baked Chicken and Rice (a reader favourite!)
One Pot Greek Chicken and Lemon Rice (another firm reader favourite!)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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One Pot Chinese Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 tsp ginger , grated
- 1 onion , finely chopped
- 500g (1 lb) chicken thighs , skinless boneless, halved (Note 1)
- 1 big bunch Chinese Broccoli with thick stems (Note 2)
Rice:
- 1 cup (180g) uncooked white rice (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) chicken broth , low salt
Sauce:
- 2 cloves garlic , small, chopped
- 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (Note 4)
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce (or sub with Hoisin)
- 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 5)
- 1/4 tsp white pepper (or black)
Garnish:
- green onion , sliced
- Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix Sauce in a large bowl. Add chicken and set aside to marinate for 10 minutes to overnight.
- Cut Chinese broccoli stems cut into 2.5 cm/1″ pieces, leafy part 5cm/2.5cm pieces.
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Remove chicken from marinade, shaking off excess marinade – RESERVE marinade!
- Cook both sides until golden – about 90 seconds on each side, don’t let them burn! Remove chicken onto plate.
- Add a touch of oil if pot is dry. Add onion, garlic and ginger, cook for 2 minutes until tinged with gold.
- Add rice, stir to coat grains in oil. Add broth, reserved Marinade and Chinese broccoli stems. Stir.
- Place chicken across the top, pour in juices pooled on plate. Cover, bring to simmer then lower heat to medium.
- Cook for 12 -15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed (tilt pot to check).
- Remove from heat. Working quickly, scatter Chinese broccoli leaves across surface, clamp lid back on.
- Rest for 10 minutes. Remove lid, toss rice and serve, garnished with sesame seeds and green onions. A dollop of your favourite chilli paste wouldn’t go astray either!
Recipe Notes:
Other Asian Greens – like pak choy, bok choi etc Cut per recipe but scatter across top of chicken, do not stir into liquid (because they’re more delicate so will cook to mush if mixed in liquid).
Frozen or fresh diced veg – stir into liquid and cook per recipe.
Cauliflower – stir into liquid and cook per recipe. 3. Rice – Any ordinary white rice is suitable for this recipe. Long grain, medium grain, short grain, Japanese rice, sushi rice, jasmine, basmati. Long grain, jasmine and basmati will yield the fluffiest rice, the others are a bit stickier as they are supposed to be. Recipe is NOT suitable for: paella or risotto rice. Brown rice will require the following adjustments: Add extra 0.5 cup of water, do not add stems or chicken in. Cover and cook rice for 30 minutes on low. Stir through stems and top with chicken. Cover and cook 10 minutes, remove from heat, follow recipe to wilt leafy part and stand 10 minutes before serving, 4. Chinese Cooking wine – read here for more information. Sold at Asian grocery stores and the Asian section of some supermarkets (Coles, Woolies in Australia). Dry sherry and mirin are excellent substitutes. For a non alcoholic version, leave it out and add 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder into Sauce. 5. Dark soy sauce has a more intense flavour and colour than light soy sauce and ordinary all purpose soy sauce. This is what stains the rice in this recipe. It can be substituted for light or all purpose soy sauce. 6. Nutrition per serving. To reduce salt, use low sodium soy sauce.
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
“Coffee for me, and a dog treat for Dozer!” I chirped, when I spied a cute jar of doggie treats at a coffee shop.
Little did I know – they were VEGAN dog treats. What is this world coming to?
Not that Dozer cared. (But I did. It was expensive!!!)
I just made this for the third time.I increased the ginger to a desrtspoon.It is so good my son’s favourite now.
Awesome recipe! Thanks Nagi. I absolutely love this one pot meal – so quick, easy and tasty.
Perfect! N x
I am the worst cook ever, This recipe was so easy and absolutely delicious. I love that you give us different options, like substituting the Oyster Sauce for Hoisin. Thank you for making me look so good. My family loved it! xxxx
This is a really simple, beautiful recipe with delicate flavours. Lovely so see the recipe recommended in the UK Guardian last week! Thanks Nagi X
Hi Nagi. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I made it tonight for the first time and it was a big hit with the whole family! They have asked me to definitely make it again. 🙂
Hi.Were the oven baked chicken rice and i use pearl barley instead?
Hi Nagi
Your site got a name check from Ann Lee in the Guardian Online today as part of her article on rice. She gave a link to your One Pot Chinese Chicken and Rice as an example of an adaptable dish. The other she mentioned was from Yotam Ottolenghi!! Way to go Nagi!
We still make at least 2 of your recipes every week. Stay safe, from Carol in Auckland xx
WOOT! Awesome to hear Carol!!!
Another great recipe Nagi !!
Made this for the second time today and reduced the amount of chicken stock as the rice was a little too soft for my liking the last time. I also added shitake mushrooms and mixed it in with the rice before placing the chicken on top with some extra slices of ginger. Delicious !
Yum I love shiitake – a fab addition! N x
This is the 4th Recipe I have tried and it was also easy and delicious.My Son is Loving them all as well.I used Bok Choy for the green.
Hi Nagi, made this last Friday and it was a hit with the bf!! Wondering if I can do this with beef and use bulgogi/kalbi sauce as the marinade? And what cut of beef would you recommend for this type of cooking? Thanks, you amazing cook! Sharon 🙂 🙂
Hi Sharon – yes you can, it would be a whole different recipe though and I’d need to do some testing 🙂 N x
Hello Nagi! Thank you for this wonderful recipe! It was reaaaaly tasty, but a bit salty for me. Could you suggest me what could it be? I tried to use less dark soy sauce, but that wasn’t the case
XX
Hi Kat, sorry you found it too salty – did you use low salt chicken stock here? N x
The family & I LOVE this email. So simple with such great flavours. Perfect for leftovers too 🙂
The family & I LOVE this meal… So simple with such great flavours. Perfect for leftovers too 🙂 Thanks Nagi x
Hi, is it possible to cook this using rice cooker?
Not this one sorry! N x
On the stove now! Just added the leafy veg so only ten minutes to wait….it smells amazing! Thank you! I found your site today looking for a yeast free bread recipe and have marked loads of recipes to try. I really love the way you add notes about substitutions and the recipes are so clear and encouraging.
Thank you so much Sally, I truly appreciate the feedback! N x
So delicious and easy, perfect weeknight dinner.
Every single one of your recipes has been divine, thank you for sharing!
Dear Nagi it’s amazing!!! We give it seven stars out of five xxx my nineteen year old son just arrived home from a long day working in the supermarket and has a huge bowlful. It’s just delicious. The chicken is so tender and tasty and the rice is both aromatic and comforting. Thank you so much. We’re in the uk so I subbed tenderstem broccoli and used dry sherry instead of Mirin. I added some baby spinach in the rest phase. There are only row of us but I cooked the whole amount and now I’m so excited for the leftovers tomorrow!!
I’m in a food coma after my dinner Nagi. Need I say more! Thank you for this.
Wahoo that’s great Merl! N x
Mighty tasty, Nagi. Thank you for another great recipe.
Fantastic! Even my 3 year old had 3 bowls of this. I had to use bok choy as my area did not have the Chinese broccoli available.
Loved it. Def will make it again.
That’s great to hear Leonie!
Your recipes rock! I tried this dish for the first time tonight and it was a huge hit! Thank you so much.