Brown rice pilaf with chicken: ingredients, cooking options, recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Pilaf of brown rice with chicken is a simple and tasty dish that is equally appropriate on the festive table and in the diet of an active athlete or a person who wants to lose extra pounds. There are at least three reasons to cook this variation of pilaf.

Originality

With all the variety of pilaf recipes, most often they cook the classic version with pork or lamb and white rice. Brown rice pilaf with chicken will help to surprise your family and guests, to please them with new taste sensations. Brown rice pairs wonderfully with chicken, giving the dish a nutty flavor and unusual color.

Crushing

White rice is a very capricious cereal that requires special preparation and control. If you do not keep the correct proportion of water and rice, rinse the grains poorly or overexpose it on fire, then instead of crumbly pilaf, you get sticky rice porridge with vegetables and meat, which has a dubious appearance and taste. Brown rice, due to its structure, does not stick together, even for beginners, pilaf with it always turns out crumbly.

Utility

Brown rice containssignificantly more vitamins, fiber and trace elements than its white counterpart. It's all about processing. During the cleaning of the grain from the outer shell and steaming, white rice loses many useful substances. In addition, brown rice has more slow carbohydrates, so it saturates the body better and provides a feeling of satiety for a long time, which is very important for people on diets. Chicken meat belongs to dietary products, it is less high-calorie and fatty than pork and lamb.

Dishes

Regardless of the chosen recipe, brown rice pilaf with chicken (as well as any other) must be cooked in the right dishes. It should be sufficiently voluminous and ensure uniform heating of the products. Therefore, pots and pans with low sides and thin walls will not work, pilaf does not fit in them and often burns. Thick-bottomed, but thin-walled cookware is not the best choice.

The best option is a quality cauldron. It is designed to prepare the perfect pilaf. A semi-circular bottom, thick walls, a tight lid provide the same heating throughout the volume. If there is no cauldron, then you can use a deep saucepan, duckling, cast iron pan or slow cooker, which also provides uniform heat transfer.

Ingredients

Chicken Brown Rice Pilaf includes a number of must-have ingredients, each of which plays an important role in the final taste of the dish. Therefore, you need to responsibly approach their purchase. Is there some moreoptional additives, but they can spice up pilaf and enrich its taste.

Brown rice. Its quality can be determined by the appearance of the grain. It should be light brown in color, about the same size and intact. Too dark or very light color is a sign of a fake product. In addition, brown rice deteriorates quickly when stored for a long time or improperly, so you should look at the expiration dates in the store, and immediately use or store in the refrigerator at home.

Meat. Brown rice pilaf with chicken can be cooked from chicken legs, thighs, drumsticks, breasts or fillets - it doesn’t really matter. If there are bones in the meat, then the dish becomes more rich. Meat without bones is drier, but it is more convenient to eat. The main thing is to buy fresh chicken, and during cooking, remove oily and harmful skin from it.

Vegetables. Carrots, garlic, onions - a classic vegetable triumvirate for pilaf. They are responsible for the aroma, color and taste of the dish. Therefore, you should not save and buy Chinese garlic or dry carrots. It is better to pay for juicy and fragrant vegetables, the costs will pay off with a great pilaf.

Oil. There is a controversial opinion that real pilaf is cooked purely in cottonseed oil. But it is difficult to find it in Russia, in addition, practice shows that pilaf turns out to be tasty even in ordinary vegetable oil. It is desirable that it be refined, that is, it does not have a pronounced smell of seeds.

Seasonings. For pilaf from brown rice with chicken, thosethe same seasonings as for the classic. These are barberry, coriander, necessarily zira, paprika, turmeric, saffron, black and hot red peppers. There is a huge field for culinary experiments. However, you need to be careful with seasonings, because they can drown out all other tastes or make the dish too spicy.

Additional ingredients. You can complicate the taste bouquet of pilaf and give it a special originality by adding bell peppers, raisins, chili peppers, green peas, tomatoes, chickpeas, dried fruits, quince, fresh dogwood, cranberries.

Algorithm and basic principles of cooking

There are many options for cooking pilaf from brown rice and chicken. It can be cooked on fire, on the stove or in a slow cooker, from fillet or from drumsticks and thighs, use a minimum of required products, or spice up the dish with unusual ingredients. However, any good pilaf is prepared according to approximately the same algorithm and in compliance with a number of well-established principles:

• Product ratios. Each person has his own preferences: someone puts more meat in pilaf, someone does not really like carrots and reduces its amount. But many experienced cooks advise using a simple formula: take an equal mass of carrots, dry rice and meat.
• Product preparation. First you need to thoroughly rinse the brown rice and soak it. It is cooked longer than white, so it needs to be soaked longer: about three to four hours, and it is better to leave it in water for the whole night. The onion practically dissolves in pilaf, so the method of cutting it does not matter. Carrots, on the other hand, must be chopped into large straws, so it retains more juices. The chicken is placed in portions or cut into smaller pieces.
• Bookmark meat and vegetables. First, put the chicken in the bowl. The oil must be very well heated so that the meat in it is immediately fried to a crust and does not give up its juices. When the chicken is browned, onions are added to it and fried until golden brown. Next, carrots are poured, which is brought to softness. Then comes the turn of s alt, heads of garlic and seasonings. They need a couple of minutes, stirring, then sweat, so that they reveal their flavors.
• Bookmark rice. Usually, when preparing pilaf, a mixture of vegetables and meat is poured with water and a special sauce called zirvak is boiled for half an hour. But the chicken cooks quickly, so you can immediately lay the rice.
• The principle of layers. While pilaf is on fire, it is not customary to mix it. The bottom layer consists of meat and vegetables, on top of which lies rice, which, having absorbed water, comes to readiness for steaming.
• Proportions of water and rice. It is usually advised to take two parts of water to one part of rice. But brown rice is tougher and takes longer to cook than white rice. Therefore, it is better to increase the amount of water to a ratio of 3 to 1. You can do it in another way: level the layer of rice in the cauldron and fill it with water so that the water covers it by about 2-3 centimeters.
• After boiling water, the fire under the dishes is reduced almost to a minimum. The readiness of pilaf is determined by the readiness of rice. If all the principles and proportions are observed, then after half an hour there is no water left in the cauldron, and brown rice becomes soft, although it stillretains its inherent light rigidity.

Subtleties

There are a number of culinary subtleties that help avoid typical beginner mistakes and make brown rice and chicken pilaf especially delicious:

The taste of pilaf depends on the taste of water. Many overlook this crucial factor when using tap water to soak rice. The grains absorb the taste and smell of the liquid they are in. Therefore, you can wash rice in plain water, but you need to soak it in filtered water, and even better in spring or well water

• The onion is responsible for the flavoring of the oil and the color of the rice. The more it is fried, the more yellow and brighter the pilaf will turn out.
• In addition to the main seasonings, a pinch of sugar should be added to pilaf. It improves the taste of the dish.
• Rice in a cauldron should be poured with boiling water so that the stewing of food does not stop, and the water boils faster.
• Pilaf should be allowed to ripen: turn off the fire, wrap the cauldron in a blanket or just leave it alone under the lid for half an hour or an hour, and only after that serve pilaf to the table.

Pilaf with chicken and brown rice in a cauldron

Ingredients:

• Chicken fillet or drumsticks and thighs - 500 grams.
• Brown rice - 500 grams.
• Peeled carrots - 500 grams.
• Onion - 2 onions.
• One head of garlic.
• Spices, sugar, s alt to taste.

Cooking:

1. Fry meat until crisp in hot oil.
2. Add finely chopped onion to it, after a few minutes carrots,chopped straws.
3. Bring the carrots to softness, and then add s alt, seasonings and garlic to the cauldron and mix the contents of the cauldron vigorously for a couple of minutes.
4. Pour pre-soaked rice on a layer of meat and vegetables and gently level it. Pour hot water on top so that it covers the cereal by 2-3 centimeters.
5. Let the water boil, reduce the heat and cook the pilaf until the rice is ready.

Pilaf of brown rice with chicken in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

• Chicken meat - 300 grams.
• Carrot - 300 grams.
• Brown rice - 300 grams.
• One medium onion.
• Seasoning and s alt to taste.

Cooking:

1. Turn on the multicooker to the "Frying" mode, pour oil into the bowl and wait until it warms up well.
2. Fry chicken until crispy.
3. Add onion to it, sauté until done.
4. Add carrots cut into long strips, fry until soft.
5. Pour spices into the multicooker bowl, s alt, add sugar and garlic.
6. Pour pre-soaked rice on top, pour boiling water so that the water level is one and a half to two centimeters higher than the cereal.
7. Turn on the "Rice", "Stew" or "Pilaf" mode for 30 minutes, depending on the multicooker model.