Oven Baked Chicken And Rice (2024)

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 1 hour hr

REST: 10 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

For Chicken

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons light brown sugar, (OPTIONAL. FOR KETO use a brown sugar substitute)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or dried parsley)
• 1 teaspoon mild sweet paprika (or hot)
• 1 teaspoon each garlic powder and onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Cracked black pepper, to taste
• 6 skinless chicken thighs, bone in or out

For Rice

• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups hot chicken broth (or stock)
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice

For Mushrooms (OPTIONAL)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 14 ounces (400g) button mushrooms, quartered
• 1/4 cup chives (or green onions), divided
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley, to garnish

• Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

• In a shallow bowl, mix together the olive oil, sugar, oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, salt and pepper. Add the chicken and coat each piece evenly with the seasoning. Set aside, allowing the flavours to absorb into the meat. If time allows, marinade overnight for a deeper flavour.

• Spray a large baking dish (10-inch x 15-inch OR 25 x 35 cm) with nonstick cooking oil spray. Add the onion, garlic, oil, salt, pepper, HOT boiled broth, hot water and butter into the dish. Mix well to melt the butter and combine. Stir in the rice.

• Arrange thighs in the dish over the rice, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, spray chicken with oil and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked right through to the bone and rice is soft. Change oven setting to broil to brown the chicken and crisp rice (only needs 3-5 minutes).

• Remove chicken thighs, mix the rice through, then arrange the chicken back on top of the rice. Cover and allow it to rest for 10 minutes to set all of the flavours in the hot dish. The rice will finish off cooking while resting.

• While chicken is resting, prepare mushrooms (OPTIONAL):

  Heat butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic until fragrant (30 seconds) and add mushrooms; cook until softened. Stir in 2 tablespoons of chives and season with salt and pepper.

• Transfer chicken onto a plate; fluff rice with forks, then mix the mushrooms through the rice. Arrange chicken back onto the rice in the dish, garnish with remaining chives and chopped parsley. SERVE and enjoy!

• Bone-in chicken thighs bake in the same time as rice, which makes them the perfect cut of chicken for this recipe. They also guarantee juicy chicken pieces without drying out. There's nothing worse than dry chicken.
• Skin-OFF thighs work so much better when compared to skin-ON thighs. During testing, we found leaving the skin-on resulted in gluggy, sticky, half raw rice. Too much chicken fat seeped into the rice while baking.
• You can use bone-in chicken breasts in this rice casserole. Cook time is the same as chicken breasts are thicker than chicken thighs.
• Chicken drumsticks can be used with skin on or off. Both work well.
• Arrange your chicken over the rice as the image above shows. We found chicken MUST be placed over the middle section of the rice to ensure the rice gets cooked. Leaving the middle uncovered resulted in a few raw grains.
• Long grain rice is the best rice to use and cooks evenly.Basmati rice or Jasmine rice can be substituted with the same liquid ratio and cooking time.
• Please do not use short grain rice, medium grain rice, risotto, paella or minute rice.

FOR BONELESS CHICKEN THIGHS AND BREASTS

• Add rice into the baking dish WITHOUT chicken. Cover with foil and bake rice in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Remove pan from oven, uncover and arrange chicken over the top. Return to the oven, uncovered, for a further 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked though and the liquid has absorbed. Rice should be soft. Continue with the recipe.

PREBOIL LIQUID

We tried and tested this recipemany times since posting as a few readers are having trouble comprehending the directions. We foundadding boiled (hot) chicken broth to the rice allows the cook time to be reduced while giving you perfectly cooked rice.

Please pre-boil your broth while preparing the rest of your ingredients, ensuring hot boiling chicken broth isbeing added in Step 3.

If youdon't havechicken broth, use 4cupsboiling water and mix in 4teaspoonschicken bouillon or stock powder.