ASK A PROFESSIONAL chef
about the foods they crave and
99 percent of the time their answer
will be something surprisingly simple
and comforting. My favorite meal
to make at home is chicken and rice.
The version I grew up eating in
North Carolina featured white rice
that was softened and plumped with
chicken stock and then tossed with
tender pieces of shredded chicken. I
remember it as a supremely savory
dish boasting the clear, unambigu-
ous fl avor of chicken and little else.
It’s just the kind of thing I want after
spending long hours developing a
recipe for a more complex dish.
Yet this kind of simplicity can be
diffi cult, but not impossible, to pull off.
To learn how others have mastered it, I
made fi ve diff erent versions of chicken
and rice, each developed by a Southern
cook. After sampling all fi ve, my tasters
and I found that some of them fell fl at
on fl avor and others were too much
work to produce.
And while none of the fi ve gave
me the exact results I wanted (or
craved), one recipe pointed me in the
right direction. It called for creating
an ultrafl avorful stock by simmer-
ing chicken pieces in chicken broth
before removing them from the pot
and adding rice to simmer. Once
the rice was cooked, I shredded the
cooked chicken and stirred it into the
rice. Although the result was straight-
forward and delicious, it was a little
wet—somewhere between a hearty
stew and a risotto.
Unsurprisingly, this recipe was a
hand-me-down from a beloved grand-
mother. Like many heirloom recipes,
it lacked precise ingredients, such as
the exact amount of liquid I’d need
for the soft, fl uff y texture I sought. To
bring this recipe up to our detailed
test kitchen standards and even out the
vagaries, I’d have to be stricter with my
ingredients and technique.
I started with bone-in, skin-on
chicken thighs, a favorite for their juicy
texture and deep fl avor. Gently sim-
mering them for 30 minutes coaxed outsome gorgeous fl avor. I then removed
them from the pot to cool and turned
to the rice.
I tried toasting the rice in butter
before adding my easy stock to cook
it through, a trick we often use to
add fl avor and keep the grains sepa-
rate when making rice pilaf. But this
batch didn’t feel cohesive. Instead,
2 cups of untoasted long-grain rice
added to my stock (made with 4 cups of
store-bought broth and 3 cups of water)
emerged soft and creamy—just right
for this comforting dish.
I conducted a dozen more tests—
adding bay leaves, celery, herbs, and
more—but found that these ingre-
dients interfered with the clarity
of this straightforward dish. Some
chopped onion and a few tablespoons
of unsalted butter proved to be the
only necessary additions, lending just
enough savory richness.
I’m not sure I would have found my
way to this simple recipe without all
the detours. But the journey reminded
me that sometimes the best thing you
can do in the kitchen is trust that your
core ingredients, treated carefully
and nudged along lightly, will deliver
exactly what you’re looking for—in
this case, the pure, simple fl avors of
chicken and rice.Simple flavors,
such as those of
chicken and rice,
are often the
most satisfying.Southern-Style
Chicken and Rice
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle
position and heat oven to 300 de-
grees. Place guajillos and anchos
on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until
fragrant and guajillos are deep red
and have curled edges, about 7 min-
utes. Immediately transfer chiles to
bowl and cover with hot water. Let
stand until pliable, about 5 minutes. - Drain chiles and transfer to
blender. Add broth, vinegar, orange
juice, sugar, 1¼ teaspoons salt, and
½ teaspoon pepper and process un-
til smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping
down sides of blender jar as needed.
Set aside adobo. - Pat chicken dry with paper towels
and sprinkle with remaining ½ tea-
spoon salt and remaining ½ teaspoon
pepper. Heat oil in Dutch oven over
medium-high heat until shimmer-
ing. Add chicken and cook until well
browned, about 4 minutes per side.
Transfer to plate. - Add onion to now-empty pot
and reduce heat to medium. Cook
until softened, about 4 minutes. Stir
in garlic, tomato paste, oregano,
cumin, cinnamon, and orange zest
and cook until fragrant, about
30 seconds. Whisk in adobo until
combined. Return chicken, skin
side up, to pot along with any ac-
cumulated juices; bring to simmer.
Transfer pot to oven and bake,
uncovered, until chicken is tender
and breasts register 160 degrees and
drumsticks/thighs register 175 de-
grees, 35 to 40 minutes. - Transfer chicken to platter. Stir
sauce to combine and season with
salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce
over chicken and sprinkle with
cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.
Sometimes the best
thing you can do in the
kitchen is not overthink
things. by Morgan Bolling
SOUTHERN-STYLE STEWED
CHICKEN AND RICE Serves 6 to 8
We developed this recipe using Lund-
berg Organic Long-Grain White Rice.4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 onion, chopped fi ne
11⁄2 teaspoons table salt, divided
2 pounds bone-in chicken thighs,
trimmed
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups long-grain white rice, rinsed- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in Dutch
oven over medium-high heat. Add on-
ion and ½ teaspoon salt and cook until
onion is softened, about 5 minutes. - Add chicken, broth, water, pep-
per, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt
and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low,
cover, and simmer until chicken is ten-
der and registers at least 185 degrees,
about 30 minutes. - Remove pot from heat. Transfer
chicken to plate and let cool slightly,
about 15 minutes. Using 2 forks, shred
chicken into bite-size pieces; discard
skin and bones. - Return broth to boil over high heat
and stir in rice, chicken, and remain-
ing 2 tablespoons butter. Reduce heat
to medium-low and simmer, uncov-
ered, stirring occasionally, until rice
is tender and liquid level drops just
below surface of rice, 17 to 20 min-
utes. Season with salt and pepper to
taste. Serve.
Pepper Primer
Two types of dried chiles com-
bine to create a deep, complex
fl avor base for the adobo. Look
for ancho and guajillo chiles in
the Latin American section of
your supermarket.ANCHO
CHILEGUAJILLO
CHILE