Chicken and rice with leeks and salsa verde
I’ve been a little obsessed lately with cooking rice and protein in one dish. It feels like it should be the perfect meal - rice with extra fat and flavour; protein that’s steamed and moist; usually a few veggies thrown in for good measure - but I haven’t found that many recipes that do it. I’ve experimented on my own (check out this monster dish from a few months back), but I haven’t really nailed it more than a few times. My bestie Britt sent me this one last week so I gave it a whirl tonight.
Tonight’s takes:
Husband: “Why does the chicken not have any colour on it? Did you follow the recipe?” I did. Surprisingly.
Helen (5 1/2 years old): “Chicken and rice good. Leeks not so good. Sauce really good.”
Hector (3 years old): “NO CHICKEN! I DON’T LIKE THE CHICKEN ON HELEN’S PLATE! JUST RICE! … Oh, it’s pretty good mama. I really like the green sauce.” 😤
What I used:
3 leeks
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
3 cups chicken stock
9 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, approx. 750g
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 small cloves garlic
generous 1 tbsp capers
generous 1 tbsp anchovy paste
1 tsp chili flakes
1 bunch parsley
4-5 tbsp olive oil
zest and juice of one lemon
What I did:
Cut off ends of leeks, sliced down the middle, washed thoroughly.
Diced leeks.
Put butter, vegetable oil in Dutch oven on medium-low heat.
Added leeks, stirred to coat with fat. Added pinch of salt. Put lid on. Cooked for 5 minutes.
Removed lid, turned heat up to medium, sautéd until just turning brown (~5 minutes).
Added rice.
Sautéd until just turning brown (~ 2 minutes).
Added stock. Scraped up brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
Nestled chicken thighs into rice. Added half the lemon zest. Brought to simmer. Turned heat down to medium-low. Put lid on and steamed for 20 minutes.
Turned my attention to the salsa verde. Put garlic, anchovy paste, capers and remaining lemon zest in food processor.
Washed parsley. Added to food processor.
Forgot chili flakes, added those now.
Pulsed and slowly added olive oil.
Added lemon juice. Pulsed. Done!
After 20 minutes, removed rice + chicken from the heat Left lid on for 10 more minutes. Done!
Served! (I’m shit at plating)
Next time:
My mouth still tastes like garlic. Next time, I’ll definitely add less. Otherwise the salsa verde was quite good.
The rice ended up tasing like Uncle Ben’s - must have bought shitty chicken stock. Next time, I might skip it all together and just use water. The butter added a weird flavour to the dish; it seemed mismatched with the salsa verde. Next time, I’ll just use olive oil. The colour of the dish was also a little lackluster; I might try browning the thighs first next time - get a bit of colour on them and a bit more flavour in the dish.
Send me your rice pilaf + protein dishes!
😋😋
-Ellisa