Recicember 2021 Day 10: Nadiya Hussein’s Chicken and Rice Bake

On a Saturday morning while channel-hopping, I happened to land on a cooking show. I know, it’s difficult to avoid them on a Saturday before midday, but there you go. It was Nadiya Hussein working away in her kitchen, and I left it on as a background thing while I had a conversation with Tracy and my parents.

I lost track of the convo as Nadiya started doing something quite interesting with chicken and rice – two of my faves! I’ve seen Nadiya’s stuff before, and it always looks amazing…but this one piqued my interest!

Now, this one has a lot of pics because there are a lot of steps, but they aren’t complex. Trust me. I got Tracy to do this one! You can find the recipe here.

On the telly, Nadiya worked on the chicken thighs while they were still in the pack – she also used more. In fact, she used drumsticks…but here we are. We scaled it down a bit, and we had some thighs in the freezer…so ours are defrosted and on a plate. The recipe still works, honest!

Right, here we go….onion and garlic in the deadly 4-armed obliverator, make it finely chopped!

Add in some melted butter (mmmm…drinkable…), stir it, and put in your pre-heated oven (you did that, right?) for 10-15 minutes. DO NOT LET IT BURN.

Oil up your thighs and rub them with spices…

Now, grab the onion stuff out the oven (use gloves obv) and squish the cardamom seeds and add them…and bung in the rice too. Daintily balance the chicken on top, add the stock, shove it back in the oven.

After 30 mins, take it out again, lift out the chicken and put it somewhere safe. Like a bank, or a wall safe. Chuck in the peas, mix it, put the chicken back on…throw it in the oven again!

Take out the chicken and rice and chuck some coriander/cilantro on it, stick it in a bowl, and eat it!

Another great way I can get thighs in my mouth, and I don’t have to start wrestling for this one! Thanks Nadiya! (And Tracy for cooking it!)

TL;DR: Chicken and rice but use your thighs instead.