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 cooked this over a propane stove while camping. It was really good, especially for camping food. My rice was awfully wet, though, so I added an extra 1/4 cup of rice when I just made it again tonight. That has worked out well. I think this is just variation in rice type. Super tasty. Super easy. Obviously really flexible.
Hi Stephanie – yes rice can vary quite a bit from brand to brand or using different types. N x
Hi Nagi. Can I use electric rice cooker with claypot option?
Great meal, quick and easy. I added mushrooms, broccoli and a little cabbage to use what I had available. Love that the recipe is easy to adapt. The leftovers were great for lunch with chilli paste and a fried egg on top!
I made this tonight, was super easy & delicious. I used Broccolini as that is what I had in the fridge & thigh cutlets, both worked perfectly. Thx Nagi for another awesome recipe x
Hi Nagi.
Long time fan. First time running into a problem with one of your recipes.
I use an enamel Dutch oven. I preheated the oven, and then oil, and had to brown the chicken in 2 batches. By the time I was done, the bottom of the oven was completely burnt. I ended up finishing this in a rice cooker.
Any tips on avoiding burning the pot?
Hi Mike – that’s a common problem. Chef’s tip – if you need to brown meat in two batches, wipe out the pan with a damp cloth after the first batch so the stuck on bits from batch 1 don’t burn in batch 2. You should still have plenty of nice little caramelised bits from the second batch that will go into the rice when you deglaze with the liquid. Also be sure your heat is not too high – you want browned, not blackened! N x
Made this tonight, delicious as are all your recipes. I couldn’t find any asian veg so I used half a head of broccoli and half a red capsicum. I added the diced stalks of broccoli first then added the capsicum and broccoli heads in the steaming stage. Amazing and I think I will be able to freeze my leftovers for lunch another day.
I have made this over and over and over and over and over again. We use Bok Choy for the greens. The hard parts go in first when cooking the rice and the greens go in after cooking to steam. LOVE THE FLAVOUR always. Today I had no time to marinate the chicken and it turned out just as good.
So glad you enjoyed it Jan! N x
This is the first Asian meal I’ve cooked from scratch and it was easy and delicious! Thank you for sharing this. I will be making it again 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it Nicky! N x
Hi Nagi, tried and enjoyed many of your recipes. I have 2 questions. Can i use apple cider vinegar instead of chinese cooking wine and the other thing is that when i put the chicken in the pan, a lot of liquid came out of the chicken so it didn’t sear. Did i do something wrong?
Hi Shilps, apple cider vinegar is sour and not a suitable sub for Shaoxing – I list appropriate subs in the recipe notes. If your chicken doesn’t sear, I would pat the chicken dry, don’t overcrowd the pan (as this will cause stewing) and sear on a relatively high heat. N x
Hi Nagi! I don’t have fresh ginger. Can I sub for ground ginger or should I leave it out?
Delicious, versatile, and (most important!) enormously forgiving for an inexperienced cook like me. The four kids loved it and I loved the amount of veggies I could stuff in!
Hi Nagi, Love your recipes!! Do you think this could be made ahead and frozen?
yum
Hi Nagi,
Me again!
So sorry in my excitement, I totally forgot to mention this recipe book is from the refugees locked down in Melbourne.
Their response to being in lockdown is to respond with love. Hence the amazing family recipes.
Hope you understand.
https://www.cohealth.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cohealth-Cooking-Recovery-Connections.pdf