I remember how this dish evolved from a rich red, paprika dish with skin-on chicken leg pieces to a light risotto style meal with breast pieces of chicken. Me and my brother remember the old one wistfully, like some mythical half-remembered dream of our childhood. Then my mum got wise, perhaps we all got chubby, who knows. She realised that while the old version was very tasty it was also very fatty and unnecessarily oily. So she developed the recipe into a light and healthy meal that ticks all the boxes on the nutritional check list.
Chicken and Rice Recipe
Ingredients:
chicken breast meat
1 – 1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1 L chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or powder/cubes etc) plus extra water
Splash of sherry or vermouth
1 diced onion
1 clove of garlic (minced)
2 sticks of diced celery
1 diced green capsicum (or pepper)
frozen peas and corn
Method:
In a large frying pan, brown larger, tenderloin-sized pieces of chicken and set those aside.
In a bit of oil, saute the onion, garlic and celery.
When they have turned transparent, add the rice and stir for about a minute.
Then add half of the stock, a splash of sherry or vermouth and the vegetables and the chicken.
Give it a stir and put the lid on and simmer for as long as it takes to cook the rice through.
Keep stirring and add more stock and then water when it dries out.