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 made this last night Nagi, it was very delicious and easy to make. I followed your recipe exactly but I found it to be very dry, did I do something wrong if I did how can I fix this as I still have half the pot left. I made the full amount as I usually like to freeze some for a quick meal later, is it suitable to freeze? Thank you Nagi for your fantstic recipes, I am a big fan.
This dish is surely a great combination. Sprinkled with sesame seeds makes it more aromatic. Looking so great, thumbs up!
Hi Nagi-I live on an Island in the Indian Ocean-Mauritius;We have here a receipt a bit similar to yours
It is known as “MOON FAN”
I looked it up!! Looks even BETTER than this 🙂 N x
Made this for dinner tonight, inhaled by the whole family. So much flavour!
WHOOOOT!!! 🙌🏻
It looks great, so very good! it’s a comfort food dish!
Thanks Pat!
Nagi you are awesome! Thanks for another delicious meal.
Glad you enjoyed this one Angela!! N x
Hi Nagi How are you? I just wanted to tell you that you are my reference in English food blogs.
All your dishes look delicious and I’ve tried a few. By the way, I already bought and read your photography book.
Thanks for everything.
Thank you for the kind words Javi! I’m pleased you are enjoying my recipes! N x
Belated, but I hope you have a wonderful vacation, Nagi, and my thanks to you and your mom for the delicious recipes.
Thank you Julie! We’re having a TERRIFIC time and mother is behaving herself 😂
I made this for dinner tonight and it was completely delicious! I actually did it in my rice cooker so it ended up a two pot meal :-). Definitely keeping this one for my meal rotation list. Thank you Nagi!
Can this be done in a rice cooker? I don’t want it to stick to my le creuset.
Oh I like the sounds of this one. Fried rice in a casserole, WOW! I’ll passing this one on to my one-pot cooking goddess as she will like as well.
So, when Dozer goes vegan so will I.
Vegan dog… can you imagine! 😂
Yay N for one pot dishes!
Now that Dozer’s little girl friend has left, it will be alot easier to get him home. 😂
You’re SO RIGHT!!! I always stress when I go to pick him up that I might have to drag him away forcefully! 😂
Do you wash the rice ?
Hi Sandy! No I don’t because I buy it in packets from the supermarket so it’s already been cleaned and as a result, any excessive amounts of starch has already been removed. 🙂 It’s not necessary for everyday rice dishes, only wash rice if there’s a recipe with a very specific texture required that is affected by excessive starch on rice OR if you bought it from an open market not in packets. 🙂 N x
I come from an Asian family and we are fastidious about thoroughly washing rice until the water runs clear. I know that rice in Australia is given extra treatment but regardless, we still wash it like crazy.
Lovely . . . working from home, this is a fast and very moreish oft-time dish for me 🙂 ! I’ll sub for many ingredients when the pantry is ‘out’, but buy bottles and bottles of oyster sauce when on special so I never find myself empty ! . . . vegan dog treats: the mind boggles . . .
Yes! it’s perfect for subbing with this and that 🙂 Re: dog treats…. I know, right??!!!
Hi Nagi
Lucky Dozer! Coincidentally I also encountered vegan dog treats for the first time recently at the Canberra Green Fair. I am on a Nagi run atm, working my way through your database of recipes and have had some great successes. The Persian lamb shanks for example and the vegetarian lasagne and the roast veggies with tahini sauce which I served on homemade chickpea flatbread and …….. Always looking for more vegetarian recipes. Love that the recipes come through so frequently. Don’t know how you do it but thank you!
YOU MADE THE LAMB SHANKS???! Oooh did you get a chance to leave your feedback on it? I’m interested to hear what people think because it’s a bit different to the usual recipes I share, I wasn’t sure if it would be to the taste of most people 🙂 N x
Love and appriciate photos both Dozer and Vietnam. Interesting story about tailor made cloths and that would be there living . Love buffe meals what a work but prefer fruit salad and cheese. Oh and soups for lunch. Any Family dramas?? There is plenty time for that.would love to see rice fields. Have good week!
Surprisingly we are tiff free!!! Maybe because we are all so relaxed!!!
B’day Nagi! I wonder if this can be adapted to be cooked in an instant pot type of dish. I’ll give it a try and let you know how I went! 😁
Hi Darryl! To use an IP you would need to just toss the leafy greens part through the rice after you take the lid off (because until stove cooking, you can take the lid off the IP until de pressurised). So to make this in your IP, follow the recipe steps but make the following changes: 1 cup of broth instead of 1.5 cups, cook for 3 minutes using pressure cooker, leave for 10 minutes to rest + de pressurise, then release any remaining pressure, immediately add leafy greens and toss through to wilt. Then serve!
I can not to try. Looks s nummy! !!!
thank you, liz
Hope you get a chance to Liz! It’s super delish! N x
Hi Nagi
Is aji mirin an ok substitute for mirin?
Probably sweeter but all I have in my pantry currently.
That’s fine Sarah! it’s not a huge quantity compared to the volume of food here 🙂
Can’t wait to make this! Are you still on your trip in Viet Nam?
Sure am! That vegan treat Dozer photo was from pre trip!