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!!!)
Hi Nagi. Is it possible to make this with bone in chicken thighs? I have 2.5 lbs I need to use up. Thanks!
Hi Stephanie, You’d just need to cook the chicken longer on the stove prior to putting in the pot – bone in chicken takes longer and you don’t want the rice to overcook – N x
Hi Nagi, can I double or triple this recipe? And is it possible to cook this in a thermal magic cooker?
So good! This is a regular rotation recipe. I did it with brown rice, adjusted the liquid and was amazing!
Wahoo, that’s great to hear Marnie!
awesome recipe Nagi, thanks!
Hi!
Could I marinate the chicken breast and just bake it on its own? How long do you suggest I bake it for? 30mins at 180?
Hi Nagi, wonder if there is anything i should take note of if I’m transferring the contents after stir-frying and cooking them in a rice cooker?
Absolutely love this recipe. We cooked it again for the umpteenth time last night. So easy and so tasty.
Hi Nagi, can I please clarify RE the amount of rice? “1 cup white rice (180g)“ is this referring to a metric cup or the typical rice cup that comes with a rice cooker? Because they are not the same. I don’t have kitchen scales and I googled the conversion from cup to grams for rice and it said 220g. So I’m wondering is this for a 1 cup (rice cooker cup) of rice? Instead of a metric cup? Thank you for taking the time to clarify! Can not wait to make this 🙂
Hi Jasmine, this is a metro cup – N x
So whilst I am cooking this recipe for the 10th plus time I thought I would let you know this is truly a very easy dish to make, and the taste is amazing. This is a favourite of ours. I love your recipes Nagi.
Wahoo, that’s great Michelle!
The family loved this. I’m making it again. Also made your beef cheeks (with chuck steak) and it was fab, and the chilli. Your site has been a gamechanger for me, thank you so much.
Thanks so much Mari, I love hearing this!
Yum! Made this tonight and it was delicious! Hubby loved it and asked me to replicate. He only ever comments on my food if it’s good and for him to ask me to make it again says a lot. Thank you!!!
I’m so glad it was a hit Lynn!
Lots of lovely flavour and I loved the one pot approach. My rice was a bit ‘gloopy’ tho, and more like risotto. I wonder if I should have washed the rice (jasmine) first.?I let it cook for at least 15 minutes. Tx Nagi😀
Hi Heidi, sounds like it didn’t cook long enough for the water to totally absorb, an extra 5-10 mins would have made all the difference here – N x
Delicious! Doubled ginger (by accident) and the flavour was fabulous. Have tried several of your recipes and they’re all keepers. Thanks for sharing them.
Wahoo! I’m so happy you loved it Diana, thanks for letting me know!
Another tasty recipe Nagi! I doubled the recipe and instead of doubling the oyster sauce I used the same amount of hoisin sauce. I didn’t have any Chinese veg so I added some diced carrot, peas and corn so it was kind of like fried rice. Everyone loved it! Will definitely be making it again.
That’s awesome Maria!
Any helpful hints on making this in the Instant Pot?
I haven’t tried to be honest Brandi, I may have to invest in one soon!
Wonderful and easy to prepare! My children asked what I was cooking and I explained, “It’s one of Nagi’s recipes.” Their reply, “It will be great if it’s one of Nagi’s!” We love your website and recipes!!! Very excited to try Chinese broccoli, we eat a great variety of vegetables in our house but this one is a first (not all of it made it into pot as we nibbled on some of the stalk as we were chopping, ha ha). Created using chicken mince, plus 1 cup brown basmati + 1 cup white basmati and adjusted broth accordingly. Added sliced carrot and red capsicum at broccoli stalk stage. Also popped 1 star anise into the sauce mix. Gobbled up and children enjoyed seconds, I was a bit too ambitious on my first serve and too full for seconds. As always Nagi, thank you so much for sharing your divine recipes and additional tips, substitutions and information that make your meals easy to prepare and user friendly. Please give Dozer a cuddle for us.
Aww Shelley, that’s so nice to hear!! Thank you so much – N x
Thank you Nagi for this delicious recipe! I’ve steered clear of asian cooking in the past because I never seem to get it right. This dinner was amazing and sooo easy! Even clean up was easy! My husband and toddler devoured it. It will be making an regular appearance in our kitchen 🙂
Winning! Thanks so much for the awesome feedback Bec ❤️
Hi Nagi,
Thank you for sharing this delicious dish of my favorite ingredients. I modified the marinate by adding both oyster and hoisin sauce. I didn’t have any Chinese cooking wine so I used a little marsala wine.
My rice didn’t turn out as dry and fluffy because I added a bit more sauce, I’ll adjust next time but the flavor was wonderful. I used Chinese broccoli and was pleasantly surprised how well the chopped stems worked. I will try it again soon. Many Thanks!
Chuck
Thanks so much for the great feedback Chuck!
Hi Nagi, not sure if this has been asked (and answered) before, but can this be made in a rice cooker?
This tastes so good, even when reheated the next day, the white pepper is such a simple ingredient but adds a lovely taste. I accidentally cut my chicken up smaller than you said, but as I used thigh meat as recommended it stayed soft and actually made it easier to eat with chop sticks 🙂 – thanks for another keeper recipe Nagi
Glad you enjoyed it Suzie! –Nx
Would this work if I doubled the recipe?
Written recipe does not show garlic in the sauce/marinade. Written recipe shows the only garlic is added with onions and ginger in pot. Video shows garlic is added to sauce. I’m marinading my chicken now – I guess I need to open ziplock bag and add minced garlic – hope three cloves will be enough for 1.5 lbs of chicken (I increased sauce ingredients by 50% due to the extra 1/2 lb of chicken).