Ellens Easy Chicken And Rice Recipes

You can make a big deal out of chicken with rice -- at its zenith, it becomes paella -- but it is a dish that takes well to short cuts. And even at its simplest, it's a crowd-pleaser. For fast weeknight meals, I strip chicken and rice to its essentials: oil, onion, chicken and rice. Stock makes the best cooking liquid, but water works almost as well, because as it simmers with the chicken they combine to produce a flavorful broth. To reduce greasiness, I remove the skin from the chicken before cooking it. (In a moist dish like this one, the skin is not especially appetizing anyway.) You can easily vary this dish by using any stock instead of water; by substituting another grain, like pearled barley, for the rice; by sautéing or roasting the chicken separately and combining it with the rice at the last minute; by adding sausage or shellfish, like shrimp, along with the chicken, or, most excitingly, by adding strips of red pepper, pitted olives, capers, chopped tomatoes or shelled peas to the initial onion mix.

Provided by Mark Bittman

Categories     dinner, weeknight, main course

Time 30m

Yield 4 to 6 servings

Number Of Ingredients 8

Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 581, UnsaturatedFat 20 grams, Carbohydrate 42 grams, Fat 30 grams, Fiber 1 gram, Protein 32 grams, SaturatedFat 8 grams, Sodium 578 milligrams, Sugar 1 gram, TransFat 0 grams

• Ingredients