Poh’s Cheat’s Chicken & Rice Recipe

Can I confess something? I don’t know how to cook rice. I mean, I should say… simply because I’ve confessed it before, I STILL can’t cook rice. It’s one of the kids’ favourite foods… yet I can’t master it. And those dang microwave-able ones are so easy.

But it’s on my bucket list. I WILL learn to cook rice. I will. This year. I will be the rice master.

In fact, I did it just the other day. I haven’t mastered it, and I did stand over the pot for a long time, but I’m getting there.

Over winter we want delicious comfort foods. If you’re anything like me, you can sometimes get stuck in rut making the same dishes over and over again. Right? Right? Rice makes dinner easy, and affordable too. I’ve teamed up with the guys at SunRice to bring you some yummy recipe ideas that you can almost make with your eyes closed. It’s been fun so far. Their ambassador is Poh – host of “Poh & Co.”on SBS and the runner up of Masterchef season 1 – and we got to chat with her and pick her brilliant brain {she’s the nicest, friendliest person which was so refreshing to see – she’s the same person she seems on TV}. There’s a whole heap of us food-lovers and we’ll be challenging each other in the kitchen. I’m hoping you’ll find lots of winter dinner inspiration, and I’m secretly hoping I discover new recipes too.

Firstly though, Poh shared a recipe for her simple Cheat’s Chicken and Rice. I wish I could bottle up what this smelt like when I cooked it, because the smell was beautiful… but the taste was even more out of this world. Eating it took me straight back to our trip to Singapore a few years ago, when we went to a tiny traditional restaurant and ate Hainenese Chicken. It’s the sort of food that feels good to eat. It’s simple {less than 10 ingredients only takes about 45 minutes} and super delicious, but packed full of flavour and easy to whip up on a weeknight.

Poh’s Cheat’s Chicken & Rice

IngredientsRice

1 Tbs rice bran oil or vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped finely
2 slices ginger, 5mm thick, bashed
2 cups SunRice brown rice
3 cups chicken stock
salt to taste

Chicken
8 stalks spring onions, finely sliced
6-7cm ginger, peeled, finely grated
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup rice bran or vegetable oil
8 chicken thigh fillets or 4 breasts
8 heads of Bok choy, blanched with boiling hot water for 1 – 2 minutes, drained

Method
♥ To make the rice, combine the oil, garlic and ginger in a saucepan. Saute until golden and fragrant. Add the rice and toast until the rice is coated with oil. Add the stock. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 minutes {or until your rice is cooked}. Remove from the heat and allow to sit for a further 10 minutes before fluffing up with a spoon.
♥ While the rice is cooking, preheat oven at 180ºC and prepare the chicken.
♥ To prepare the chicken, combine the spring onion, ginger and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Heat the oil in a small saucepan until smoking, then carefully pour this over the spring onion, ginger and salt. This will spit aggressively so stand back. Place all the chicken in an oven proof dish preferably with a lid, {otherwise just cover tightly with foil} then spread all the green sauce over the chicken. Cover and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Divide the rice and chicken into 4 portions and serve with the bok choy. Enjoy.

I don’t want to be one of those people who bullies people into trying recipes, but this is one you really need to try. It feels so good eating it {the brown rice provides a natural source of dietary fibre and energy}, the house smells amazing while it’s cooking and you’ll put it on your list of dinners to cook on a weeknight. Trust me on this one.

What’s your favourite easy rice dinner? And confess, can you cook rice or do you mostly microwave like me?