Chicken and rice traybake
Nadiya's easy chicken and rice recipe lets the oven do all the work. Because the rice is cooked in the tray, you end up with lovely toasted bits as well as fluffy grains, while the chicken, rubbed with spices, is cooked right on top.
Ingredients
For the rice
- oil, for greasing
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 50g/1¾oz ghee, melted (or butter)
- 270g/9¾oz basmati rice
- 2 cardamom pods, seeds only
- 650ml/21fl oz hot chicken stock (or boiling water)
- 200g/7oz frozen peas
- large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
For the chicken
- 8 chicken legs, skin on
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tbsp oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Lightly grease a large roasting tray and put in the onion and garlic. Drizzle over the melted butter and give the onions a stir. Bake for 10–15 minutes, making sure they don’t begin to burn. Keep an eye on them – if the edges are catching too quickly, take the tray out and stir the onions again before returning to the oven.
Meanwhile, for the chicken, mix the salt, garlic, onion and cayenne in a bowl. Rub the drumsticks with the oil and cover with the spicy rub.
Take the onions out of the oven and add the rice and cardamom seeds. Stir well, then put the drumsticks on top. Pour in the stock (or boiling water). Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, lift the chicken drumsticks on to a side plate, then add the peas to the rice and lightly stir them through. Replace the chicken pieces and bake without the foil for another 15 minutes.
Stir in the chopped coriander and serve.
