It’s been a while. Life has been moving so fast, I haven’t had the chance to catch my breath. It’s been really hard to document what has been happening in my life… I’ve struggled to find time to entries into my journal. Take this from me, you need a breakkkk. Stop and smell the roses, literally. 2022 has been a long but amazing year. There is so much to share but I don’t want to waste your time. Hopefully in January, I will have more stories to tell and catch you up on how these last few months have been.
Dare to be audacious.
I have a lot of new subbies, and I’m so happy y’all are here.
The long awaited Chicken and Rice recipe I have been holding hostage from you guys. This one is for all my foodies on a budget. Please try this recipe and let me know how it turns out.
One Pot Lemon Pepper Chicken and Rice
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: ~45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 5
Ingredients
For the Chicken
5 Chicken Thighs
3 lemons
Lemon Pepper Marinade
2 tbsp oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
½ shallot, minced
1 tbsp Chicken Bouillon
1 tbsp Lemon pepper
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Smoked paprika
1 tsp Dried thyme
½ tsp Dried oregano
Red pepper flakes
Herbed Lemon Butter
4 tbsp butter, room temperature
¼ Lemon pepper marinade
For the Rice
1.5 cups long grain/basmati rice
½ red bell pepper, diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
½ shallot, diced
Herbed lemon butter
2 cups water/chicken stock
Directions
Wash chicken thighs with vinegar, water and a lemon. Pat dry
In a bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients to form lemon pepper marinade for chicken thighs.
Marinate chicken for hours before preparation to get the most flavour
Rub ¾ of marinade on chicken thighs and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, up to several hours for the most flavourful chicken.
Mix room temperature butter with the lemon pepper marinade. Squeeze juice of one lemon and zest half a lemon into butter. Mix till incorporated. Set aside.
In a hot skillet, sear your chicken thighs with the skin side down for 5 minutes.
Use a pan that can easily transfer from the stove top to the oven.
Flip and sear for 5 minutes on the other side. Add lemon butter to the pan and baste chicken thighs. Set chicken aside.
Preheat oven to 375°F
In the same skillet, add olive oil to the pan if needed. Saute the shallots, green and bell pepper for 3 minutes.
Add lemon butter to the pan and cook for 2 extra minutes.
While the veggies are cooking, wash the rice.
Add washed rice to the pan and toast the rice for ~5 minutes to prevent the rice from sticking.
Add water/chicken broth. Bring to a boil.
Once rice is boiling, add thighs back to the pan. Garnish with sliced lemons and cover thighs with any left over butter.
Cover the pot and transfer to the oven.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked to an internal temp of 165°F. Bake uncovered after half the time has passed.
Make sure rice is *almost* fully cooked. Add extra broth to rice if needed.
Let the chicken and rice steam for up to 10 minutes to get the fluffiest rice.
Serve Hot!
If you made it this far and haven’t shared this with a friend, I'm side-eyeing you…
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, O dabọ!
Coming up NEXT:
The new year is upon us, have you written down your goals, created a vision board, given yourself time to breathe?
Song of the month Love by Rema
Album of the month SOS by SZA
Enjoy this playlist my oat milk frosted flakes by toke2.0