Chicken and rice tastes like home; it’s comfy and heart-warming and comfort food can’t be beat.
But it’s always more than just chicken and, well, rice. What you do with these apparently simple ingredients makes all the difference. Let me show you how I make my keto chicken and rice. It’s a highly personal recipe, you know? Here’s all about it.
What Goes into Keto Chicken and Rice
Let’s talk about the chicken. Although the rice is essential here, the chicken is still kind of the star of the show. What makes chicken great? Well, here’s the secret: a flavorful marinade!
We’ll start with chicken thighs — they’re more tender and flavorful than chicken breasts, but you can use them if that’s how you like your chicken and rice. I use boneless thighs, and I sometimes leave the skin. That’s optional as well.
For the marinade, I combine olive oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, lemon zest and a pinch of salt. That sounds yummy already, right? I also add a custom spice mix: cumin-coriander, oregano, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Here’s where you can get creative. Just make sure that chicken is flavorful and reminds you of home, wherever that is.
How To Make Cauliflower Rice From Scratch?
There are many reasons you should make your own cauliflower rice at home. For starters, it’s way cheaper than the store-bought kind, and it’s way fresher. I’ve had the bad luck of purchasing stinky cauliflower rice more than once. Well, never again. Besides, making your own takes five minutes. You only need raw cauliflower florets and a food processor.
Cooking cauliflower rice is also easy. I dry cook mine (sans-oil) and make sure I remove a great deal of moisture before cooking it with a dab of butter and spices. What a treat! And with a beautifully glazed chicken, this rice truly shines.
When to Make Chicken and Rice?
Make this homey classic whenever you want to feel the comfort of home. After all, with our hectic lifestyles, a good-old home-cooked meal is rarer than ever. Make chicken and rice when your loved ones are coming for dinner as well. We often want to cook something over the top to impress and please everyone, but it’s the most straightforward meals that cause the biggest impression.
Having said that, chicken and rice is a splendid meal to make on any weeknight, mainly because the entire meal is ready in around half an hour. And you can make this one beforehand and come back from school or work just to find your home-cooked meal waiting for you!
Now, let’s head on to the recipe. This one is easy, but you’ll love it. Lots of flavor, few carbs and lots of love. That’s what I call a classic!
Keto Chicken And Rice
Chicken and rice is a famously comforting dish, but it’s always more than these apparently simple ingredients especially when making it keto.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 400g boneless chicken thighs
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
- 2 tsp mustard
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- spice mix
Rice
- 3 medium sized cauliflower
- 1/2 tbsp. butter
- spice mix
- 1/4 tsp yellow food color
Spice mix:
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- In a bowl add your chicken thighs, olive oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice and zest, spices and make sure everything combines well.
- cover the bowl with a food wrap and marinate the chicken just until we prepare our cauliflower rice.
- separate the cauliflower from the stem, break the cauliflower into small florets, feed the small florets into a food processor, your cauliflower is ready, time to cook it.
- place your chicken thighs on a baking tray lined with foil paper and bake at 375F for 35 minutes.
- place a pan over medium to high heat and dry cook your cauliflower, press the spatula firmly to cook all the water out of the cauliflower.
- in the middle of the pan add butter and spices and mix well, add a dash of yellow food color.
- dish out the rice, place your chicken thighs over it and enjoy.