Halal Cart style Chicken and Rice Recipe is my new favourite dinner recipe to make. The rice is beautifully fragrant, chicken seasoned to perfection all complete with a generous drizzle of my white sauce which is sure to knock your socks off! This recipe is the first of my Dinner Dilemma’s series, each week I’ll be sharing a new recipe idea for you to use, that way you’re never stuck for what to make again!
Preparation by Chicken and Rice Recipe
Before I start cooking I always like to get my prep done and out of the way, in order to make the actual cooking process so much more efficient. So here is the prep we’re going to do for my chicken and rice recipe:
- Tomatoes – wash and finely dice your tomatoes, keep the seeds!
- Lettuce – wash and finely chop your lettuce
- Rice – wash your rice people! This is an absolute non-negotiable, simply add your rice into a bowl and fill with water and rinse the rice a couple of times until the water is clear.
The Chicken
Be sure to allow your chicken to marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes but overnight is best as it rezally allows the chicken to absorb the flavour. The seasoning that you’ll need for the chicken is as follows:
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- paprika
- cumin powder
- coriander powder
- turmeric
- oregano
- juice of 1 lemon
- crushed garlic
The Optimal Milk-White Sauce
Now arguably the most important component of this dish has to be the white sauce. It is key to the chicken and rice and is honestly extremely straightforward to make. You all probably already have the ingredients for it at home! To make it simply combine: greek yogurt, mayonnaise, garlic powder, salt, pepper, lemon juice and a splash of water!
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Method: Chicken and Rice Recipe
- Begin by washing your rice and soaking it for 30 minutes.
- Marinate your chicken breasts with the spices and oil then clingfilm and place in the fridge.
- Move on to prepping the lettuce and tomatoes by dicing them finely
- In a pan melt butter and add in half a stock cube, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder then stir well. Add in your soaked rice and 300ml of water. Place the lid on and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Do not remove the lid. Once 10 minutes is up, without removing the lid, turn off the heat and allow the rice to stand for another 7 minutes.
- Whilst the rice is cooking, make your white sauce by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and optionally transfer to a squeezy bottle for some fun, alternatively you can just drizzle it on with a poon at the end.
- Pan-fry your chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes on each side, if you haven’t butterflied your chicken breasts then they may need a little longer. If you’re unsure as to whether the chicken is cooked through properly then I suggest getting your hands on a cooking thermometer. The internal temperature of cooked chicken is 75º or 165ºF. I use the Salter Instant read thermometer.
- Whilst still hot, cube up your chicken and then it’s time to plate up!
- Fluff up the rice with a fork before serving into a plate. Add on the lettuce, tomatoes and cubed chicken. Finally drizzle with the white sauce and that is it!
If you like the look of this chicken and rice then you should definitely check out the ones below for some more amazing dishes:
- Fried Chicken Tenders
- Homemade cheesy garlic bread in under 30 minutes
- Korean Fried Chicken bites
- Chicken Tacos
Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 2-3 tomatoes
- half a head lettuce
Chicken Marinade
- 2 chicken breasts
- ½ tbsp garlic powder
- ½ tbsp onion powder
- ½ tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- juice of 1 lemon
- 4 cloves of crushed garlic
Rice
- 150 g rice
- 300 ml water
- ½ vegetable stock cube
- 2 tsp cumin powder
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
White sauce
- 200 g Greek yoghurt
- 100 g mayonnaise
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- salt pepper
- splash of lemon juice
- 1-2 tbsp of water to loosen
Instructions
- Begin by washing your rice and soaking it for 30 minutes.
- Marinate your chicken breasts with the spices and oil then clingfilm and place in the fridge.
- Move on to prepping the lettuce and tomatoes by dicing them finely
- In a pan melt butter and add in half a stock cube, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder then stir well. Add in your soaked rice and 300ml of water. Place the lid on and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Do not remove the lid. Once 10 minutes is up, without removing the lid, turn off the heat and allow the rice to stand for another 7 minutes.
- Whilst the rice is cooking, make your white sauce by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and optionally transfer to a squeezy bottle for some fun, alternatively you can just drizzle it on with a poon at the end.
- Pan-fry your chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes on each side, if you haven’t butterflied your chicken breasts then they may need a little longer. If you’re unsure as to whether the chicken is cooked through properly then I suggest getting your hands on a cooking thermometer. The internal temperature of cooked chicken is 75º or 165ºF. I use the Salter Instant read thermometer.
- Whilst still hot, cube up your chicken and then it’s time to plate up!
- Fluff up the rice with a fork before serving into a plate. Add on the lettuce, tomatoes and cubed chicken. Finally drizzle with the white sauce and that is it!
