Ingredients
Serves 4, if no one is really hungry that day.
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Rice | 2 cups |
| Water | 4 cups + enough to cover the chicken. |
| Chicken Thighs | 6 |
| Baby Carrots | Some? Feel this one out. Could also chop carrots into small pieces. |
| Onion | 1 medium |
| Salt | To taste. |
| Pepper | To taste. |
| Butter | Also some? |
| Thyme | To taste. |
| Heavy Cream | A splash |
Directions
Make the rice at the same time you start frying the chicken and onion. It should time out pretty well so the rice is done just before the chicken is.
- Debone and deskin the chicken thighs. I like this method from Adam Ragusea.
- Chop the thighs in small-ish pieces. Bite sized, perhaps.
- Dice an onion, and throw it and the thigh pieces in a pan with some butter.
- Salt and pepper the chicken.
- Put the stove on medium and mix everything around, melting the butter and getting everything covered.
- Ideally, leave everything sitting for a moment to get some browning on the chicken pieces. Not sure if the temperature for that would burn the butter, but browning is good if you can get it.
- Once all the chicken has pretty well been cooked, just barely cover everything with water. Throw in the baby carrots, or small carrot chunks, and cover.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and leave covered, stirring occasionally, for ~20 minutes.
- Once the carrots are tender and the chicken has been cooked all the way through, add in a splash of heavy cream, enough to colour the broth and thicken it a bit.
- Add in some thyme, and continue to season to taste. Remember that the broth is meant to flavour a bunch of plain rice, so it should be pretty strong.
Notes
- This whole recipe is just me riffing on this Adam Ragusea video, you can basically just follow that, but it’s also just him riffing so who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- In general if you’re uncertain about a technique in this recipe, reference that video. It was my guide.
- When I made this the first time, I also had a pan sauce I’d made the previous day after cooking more chicken thighs. I threw this in, and it definitely enhanced the flavour, but it probably isn’t necessary, especially if you can get some browning on the thighs when you cook them and deglaze with the water, the effect should be the same.
- I also probably could have made the broth a touch stronger, particularly with the thyme. I opened it to smell it and it smelled really strong, so in my inexperience with it I probably undershot it.
- Also, this goes for taking bones out of chicken thighs in general, but definitely save those for a soup/stew in the future. Braising them in the oven and making a broth from them can go a long way.