welcome friends welcome back to the kitchen and what's in our pantry the
pandemic Edition this is a very simple chicken rice pilaf one dish baked type
thing it's a riff on a couple of other recipes that we've done in the past on
the channel and this one is totally just stuff that we had in our house right now
can of black beans some rice I'm using basmati rice because I've got basmati
rice some spices usually have some chicken or other proteins other meats in
the freezer vacuum sealed in the freezer for just such an occasion I'm using
chicken thighs but you could use you could use sausage if you've got some
sausage Italian sausage you could use steak bits you could cut those up it
really is open to interpretation as well as the spicing so we'll get into that
first thing I'm gonna do is I'm heating up in this oven safe pan a little bit of
oil and a salt and pepper the chicken thighs and of course you know you want
to do them both sides sure you've heard that a million times now I'm hearing
reports where we live the panic buying is over and the grocery
stores are restocked I've spoken to a couple of friends on the phone and they
said they've gone into the grocery store to get you know some milk and eggs and
stuff and pretty much everything is restocked at this point they're learning
you too two of each item to stop the panic buying but from the comment
section I understand that there's still a lot of places where the panic buying
has just started or they haven't restocked the shelves yet I hope things
get better for you quickly I know what it's like it's not great to be locked
inside your house looking at a bunch of cans and thinking what am I gonna make
for supper put the chicken in the pan skin side down we're just trying to
brown it a little bit you don't need to cook it all the way through just get
some color and some flavor in the pan okay I'm on a bit of a timeline so I'm
gonna pull these out I would normally brown them a little bit more I would
suggest it you Brown them a little bit more I just don't have any more time
I've got to get dinner on the table so out comes the chicken onto a tray and we
just sort of set that aside for a moment next in is some cumin and I'm gonna put
the cumin right into the oil and I just want to stir that just to toast it a
little bit it immediately starts to brown and it's gonna be great now that's
as long as it needs in goes the onion carrot and celery we're not really
looking for any browning on these vegetables we just want to soften them a
little bit let's sweat them out next in is some oregano and this is our homemade
taco spice you could put in if you want to take this insert of that Southwest
feel because I'm using black beans so if you want to take it in that direction
you could use any kind of chili powder or tex-mex spice mix or anything like
that I'm going to use our own it has components of what I've already put in
there the cumin and the oregano but I just wanted to ramp those up a little
bit so I'm gonna mix that in pretty much immediately I'm gonna put in the basmati
rice now you want to cook the basmati rice in with the vegetables and the oil
and you want to coat all of the kernels of the rice with that oil and spice
mixture and as you watch the rice cook you're gonna see that it changes a
little bit it almost becomes translucent okay can of black beans pantry staple
these of course have been drained and rinsed everybody asks that question yes
I drain and rinse my can of beans mix that together the final ingredient is
some chicken stock and of course if you have your own chicken stock use it if
you're using stuff from a box that's fine it doesn't matter just make sure
you use one that you like the flavor of which I'm sure is the one that you've
got in your cupboard you could also use vegetable stock if you don't have
chicken stock you could use beef stock you could use pretty much anything and
if you don't have stock it's fine you could use water you just water
and put in a bouillon cube I know that a lot of people use bouillon cubes and if
that's what you've got use it it's not a big deal so in goes the liquid now I've
got this on kind of a medium-high heat you want to make sure that the rice and
the beans are kind of underneath or at least not too far above the level of the
liquid and just as it starts to go up to a simmer that's when you put the chicken
thighs back in you just lay them on top skin side up and all of the reserved
chicken juices as well now this is going to go into a preheated 350 degree oven
for 35 to 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and about the
time the chicken is cooked through the rice should be cooked as well come on
back in a couple of seconds for the tasting so that's good hey Brent hey
Glen hey Jules stuff in our pantry chicken rice bean baked rice beaten
chicken baked I'm not gonna try the chicken okay I'm just gonna try to raise
some beans cuz chicken you know it seems like chicken yeah chicken tastes like
chicken and they're chicken thighs so it'll be nice and juicy they'll be
they'll be really good it's the rice and the beans and the other stuff so it's
just rice beans and root vegetables it's it's a pilaf with chicken on top you
know so it's not very fancy it's just know it can be a fancy name has a fancy
name it can be anything that you want
yeah that's good that's great chicken no chicken this is good I would you know
it's got beans it's got veggies throw in some veggies on the side and you've got
a new dish and you're good to go so you could put like I said earlier you put
sausage on it you could put beef on it you could put a pork chop on top you
could you could so you could take this in a completely different direction
we've got a recipe for a Ra's al hanout spice mix
ah yes you could use the rasa hanuta put raisins in it or dried prunes or dried
apricots all those things and and then put the chicken on top or don't put
chicken at all and we're done what you're gonna use just water in it and
then put squash on toss or tomatoes or whatever you've got you know don't use
the beans use a can of lentils all these sudden all of a sudden it's not a recipe
it's a method and you can make it anything you want it to be just go into
your cupboard don't panic you've got lots of food just just veg you can make
it whatever you need yeah it's there for you a good standard recipe and cookies
for like we've been testing cookie recipes so you'll find that anyway so
give this a try jump out yep experiment experiment play with your food thanks
for stopping by please stay safe and healthy see you again soon
you