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!!!)
It’s on the cooker now! Had to sub the veg with what I have – used green beans, shrooms and an onion at start and popping in some kale at end – like the garlic rice which I love. Fingers crossed! Am famished.
Hope you love it Jo! N x
Hi Nagi, have you made this in a rice cooker and if so, what adjustments did you make?
Hi Tracey! I’m sorry I haven’t , not this one 🙂 Because the liquid to rice ratio is slightly different, I’m hesitant to guess. Sorry!
Made this tonight it was really really tasty. I added some mushroom and green pepper and used tender stem broccoli as a sub for the Asian greens. Being a bit of a novice I tend to over cook stuff. However, not today, I followed your technique with the greens to the letter and they turned perfect. Thanks again for a cracking meal plan.
Dear Nagi, , your recipes are never fail, I love them, we are European, so Asian cooking is quite new for me but if I follow the recipe closely I have beautiful dinner for my family.
When I ask my family what they would like for dinner tomorrow night and the answers are “We’re easy” then I look your blog. I absolutely appreciate your great effort. Keep doing good job
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes .
Made it tonight. Absolutely delicious! Thanks for the tips about separating stems from leaves!
Glad you enjoyed it Amy!!! Thanks for sharing your feedback 🙂 N
Hey Nagi, how would I be able to make this with tofu instead of chicken? Is it the same process just with tofu?
Also forgot to add a rating… this was 5 stars!!!
Could this be made with quinoa? And would any adjustments need to be made? Thank you!
HI Catherine – 2 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa. Same cook time and method 🙂
Oh my! How did this one pass me by! Absolutely delicious. You truly are a master of your craft Nagi. Thank you for sharing with us.
So glad you enjoyed this!!! N x
I made this one pot chicken and rice dish tonight. Easy and delicious. I marinated the chicken for 24 hours for a deep and rich flavor. Could not find Chinese broccoli so subbed with a half head of Chinese cabbage (sliced 1/4” thick), and added pea pods. I threw the peas on top of chicken/rice the last two minutes of cooking, then added cabbage, returned lid quickly and allowed to rest for about 30 minutes before stirring all together. Chicken was tender and juicy with a rich flavor. Rice was perfect. The peas and cabbage would have been more crisp if I had served at 15 minutes instead of 30 obviously, but it was still a really good supper! Thank you for this recipe. I will definitely make again!
I’ve tried a number of your recipes and they have all quickly turned into family favorites. We have a teenager and a 10 year old in the house and they can eat! Can this recipe simply be doubled?
Another fantastic recipe. Used Baby Bok Choy (small town lucky I have that lol) and chicken breast. This is great for people who over cook meat because it’s hidden in the pot all moist and yummy!
Hi Nagi
Yet another delicious meal… You are fast becoming a firm favourite for lots of recipes in our house. Made this yesterday for our meal prep for the week and can’t wait to keep eating it for the rest of the week, which almost never happens! Used pak choi and boned chicken thighs as that’s all I could get and it turned out amazing. Thank you so much for this recipe 😃
YUMYUMYUMYUM! Was absolutely delicious. My 3yr old had 2 helpings and if that doesn’t tell you how good it was, I don’t know what will. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
I love a one pot chicken rice dish. I would add a star anise 🙂
Ooh that would be amazing!!! 🙂 N x
Made this tonight and loved it. Had to use bok choy. I can see how some may think it’s salty but you must use low sodium broth. I used my home made bone broth which has a very little salt and it was just right.
This was fantastic! My family couldn’t stop raving about it. I used baby bok choy and long grain rice. My rice took closer to 20 minutes to cook properly. Thanks for another winner.
Thanks Nagi, I’m by no means a cook but, I gave the dish a go. It’s definitely full of flavor & enjoyed making. Next trick, try other recipes & put some finesse into the end product.
Hi Nagi, I made this dish this afternoon for our dinner. I am across the pond in the Caribbean and its approx 3:55 pm. I don’t have the suggested broccoli so i used baby spinach as part of my ten minutes rest period. The house smell wonderful and the rice looks ready to eat. Another 5 star recipe. We;ll done Nagi.
Thanks again for your recipes.
P.S. I made the Chop Suey and it was delicious
Leisel
Wow, so much flavour from and easy to make dish. I couldn’t find Gai Lan but used bok chop and your hit of putting it on the chicken was very helpful.
Thanks for sharing so many great recipes fr this. I would recommend this to anyone that is looking for something to make during the week that won’t take long. Just marinate the meat in the morning and you’re ready to go when you get home.
I have a bunch of beet greens that need eaten. Do you think those would work if I cook the stems with the liquid and add the greens at the end? Not Asian greens but they look fairly similar.