27 Reasons Chicken and Rice Were Meant to Be Together
- Chicken and rice is a versatile and fail-safe combination that can be enjoyed in various ways, from soups to stews to street food recipes.
Find a fresh take on the classic combination with a new chicken and rice recipe for any night of the week.
Frederick Hardy II / Food Styling by Melissa Gray / Prop Styling by Christina Brockman
Chicken and rice is a classic, fail-safe combination that can be enjoyed in so many different ways. From Hainan chicken with rice to creamy soups to specialties from Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand, here are great chicken and rice recipes for simple weeknight dinners.
One-Pot Lemongrass Chicken with Rice
VICTOR PROTASIO / FOOD STYLING BY MARGARET MONROE DICKEY / PROP STYLING BY CLAIRE SPOLLEN
Cooking a whole chicken and rice in one pot with with garlic, lemongrass, chiles, and coconut gives you a stunning dinner any night of the week. Start this Dutch oven recipe a day ahead to allow for a 12-hour chill time.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Cara Cormack
Amanda Johnson uses leftover chicken or turkey and wild rice harvested nearby to make this lovely, creamy soup that's ready in just over an hour.
One-Pot Coconut-Braised Chicken and Rice with Collard Greens
Caitlin Bensel
This cast-iron skillet recipe features chicken on a bed of tender rice and greens seasoned with ginger, garlic, and chiles and topped with chiles and coconut flakes.
Skillet Chicken and Chorizo Paella
Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Missie Crawford
This paella recipe with chicken and chorizo is a satisfying array of colors, textures, and flavors, making it a one-pan, one-hour meal you're sure to return to again and again.
Filipino Chicken Adobo with Bacon and Bay Leaves
Frederick Hardy II / Food Styling by Melissa Gray / Prop Styling by Christina Brockman
Chicken Adobo is a traditional Filipino stew consisting of chicken that has been marinated and cooked in a mixture of garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar. This bright and deeply savory preparation is considered the unofficial national dish of the Philippines and has roots in indigenous traditions.
Khao Mun Gai (Thai Chicken and Rice)
Kelsey Hansen / Food Styling by Annie Probst / Prop Styling by Gabe Greco
This Thai street food features rice cooked with flavorful chicken fat, ginger, and garlic, then served with chicken, cucumber, and a refreshing broth.
Avgolemono Chicken Soup with Rice
Diana Chistruga
Avgolemono, which means lemon-egg in Greek, is a sauce served alongside dolma, vegetables, and roasted meats in Turkish, Balkan, Arab, Greek, and some Jewish cuisines. It's often used as the base of soups and stews, as it is here in our avgolemono soup with chicken.
Grilled Chicken with Coconut Rice and Chile-Lime Sauce
Greg DuPree
At Cantinho do Aziz, a family-owned Mozambican restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal, chef Jeny Sulemange prepares a grilled coconut chicken that's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, which she serves with a truly irresistible coconut rice. The recipe is all about the marinade.
Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken Biryani
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless
This classic chicken biryani features partially cooked rice layered with spicy chunks of chicken, with saffron-infused milk poured over the top. The pot is then sealed and the dish bakes slowly in the oven.
Spicy Fried Rice-Stuffed Chicken Wings
Greg DuPree
2019 F&W Best New Chef Junghyun Park dredges chicken wings in a crackling fried chicken breading then stuffs spicy, savory doubanjiang fried rice inside. The final touch is a tongue-tingling spice blend of Szechuan peppercorn, salt, sugar, and powdered vinegar.
Chicken Mole
Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell
Rich, warm, and well-balanced, this chicken mole recipe employs five types of chiles to add deep layers of heat, fruitiness, sweetness, and smokiness. Serve it with cooked long-grain white rice.
Soupy Rice with Chicken and Vegetables
Johnny Miller
Asopao de pollo, a Puerto Rican chicken-and-rice stew, is one of New York chef JJ Johnson's childhood favorites, what he calls soupy rice with chicken and vegetables. Just like his grandmother did, Johnson stirs briny, pimiento-stuffed olives into the finished dish.
Spicy Lemongrass Chicken
© Dana Gallagher
Charles Phan stir-fries chicken until it's deeply golden, then cooks the aromatics and sauces separately before combining everything in the wok to meld the flavors. This dish is ready in half an hour.
Chicken Sofrito
© Dana Gallagher
Marcia Kiesel coats chicken legs in chili powder and cooks rice with sofrito, the Spanish mixture of chopped onion, garlic and bell pepper. She bakes everything together in a skillet so that the delectable chicken juices flavor the rice, then broils the dish at the last minute to turn the chicken skin enticingly brown.
Braised Chicken Thighs with Apples and Wild Rice
Christopher Testani
Erick Harcey, one of Minneapolis' most celebrated chefs, serves this braised chicken with his supreme riff on Rice-A-Roni. Tart Granny Smith apples and cider vinegar not only tenderize the chicken thighs but also act as the base for the incredible sauce.
Indonesian Coconut Rice with Chicken and Zucchini
© Ben Dearnley
Luscious is the word for this Indonesian version of chicken and rice. Coconut milk spiced with cumin and coriander cooks into the rice and sauces the whole dish.
Chicken and Okra Gumbo
© Quentin Bacon
Rembs Layman's easy chicken version of gumbo is made with store-bought rotisserie chicken, andouille sausage, canned chicken broth, and jerk seasoning. Choose your own steam rice to serve with the dish.
Chicken and Rice with Fresh Chorizo
© Quentin Bacon
"In the Amazon, cooks make a Portuguese-style chorizo that's very good," says Pedro Miguel Schiaffino. He uses it with other local ingredients in this spin on a Latin classic.
Caramelized Ginger Chicken with Sticky Rice
© Eric Wolfinger
Valerie Luu's cousin swears by the ginger chicken sold by his favorite xoi ga street hawker in the Vietnamese city of Can Tho. After tasting it themselves on a scouting trip, Luu and Katie Kwan developed their own version.
Arroz con Pollo
© Con Poulos
Using a family recipe, chef Jose Enrique makes this chicken-and-rice recipe with what seems like too much stock, wine and pilsner, but the result is especially moist. Use short-grain rice like Bomba, which absorbs liquid well.
Spicy Chicken and Rice
© Dan Goldberg
Medium-grain Spanish rice, such as Valencia, is naturally creamy, so it nicely absorbs the flavors of this classic Spanish dish.
Chicken Rice Pilaf
© Tara Fisher
Chef Asha Gomez calls her one-hour chicken pilaf a "one-dish wonder."
Cambodian Chicken-and-Rice Soup with Shrimp
© Kana Okada
Using prepared stock and pre-roasted chicken significantly cut back on prep time for this spicy, soothing, and restorative chicken-and-rice soup from Ratha Chau, the co-founder of Num Pang Sandwich Shop.
Turmeric Chicken and Rice
Abby Hocking
"This is a simple one-pot chicken-and-rice dish, but the turmeric adds color, spice and flavor," Edward Lee says. "That makes it a winner in my house." He recommends using a whole organic chicken, so you know exactly where the bird came from, and serving the dish family-style.
Rice Cooker Ginger Chicken and Rice
© Antonis Achilleos
Throw all of your ingredients into the rice cooker and you'll be enjoying a flavorful, one-pot meal in an hour.
Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Rice Casserole
© Ian Knauer
The rice in this casserole filling is cooked until it starts to fall apart, thickening the liquid. This comforting dish is ready in under an hour.
Hainan Chicken with Rice and Two Sauces
© John Kernick
This delicately scented dish, one of Peter Ting's childhood favorites, gets its name from the Chinese island of Hainan; it's popular in Malaysia and Singapore too. Ting is dedicated to perfecting the bold scallion and chile dipping sauces that accompany it.
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