After the disaster of our cold Ukrainian soup the week prior, I wanted to cook something I knew Cosmin would appreciate. Whilst fully aware that rice gives him wind, he does like it so I prepared myself mentally for the nasal assault to come and prepared a batch of chicken broth with rice.
I learnt an important lesson this week. I would never dream of using out of date meat or dairy or veg, but I have a habit of using dried herbs and spices a little past their best. You can’t get anything past Cosmin, he immediately picked up on the fact that something tasted a bit off. Did I admit that the thyme was a year past its best before date, realising my error only after I had dumped it in the broth? No I fucking didn’t, but I also didn’t complain when 90 minutes later the parping started.
I will be sorting through my spice draw next weekend.
ingredients
- 1 chicken
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 onion peeled and quartered
- 3 onions
- 3 carrots
- 1 parsnip
- 3 tbsp sunflower oil
- 300g long grained rice
- 1 tbsp chopped thyme
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- Salt
- 6 peppercorns
NUTRITIONAL CONTENT PER PORTION
- Calories | 217
- Fat | 7.2g
Serves | 10 portions
Prep Time | 20 minutes
Cooking Time | 1 hour 30 minutes
Method
- Stuff the chicken with the bay leaves and the quartered onion. Add to a large heavy-based saucepan and fill with water (no more than two cm above the chicken) 2 ½ teaspoons of salt and 6 peppercorns. Cover, bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 hour until the chicken is cooked through. Strain the broth into a clean saucepan and leave the chicken aside to cool.
- Peel and roughly chop the three remaining onions, carrots and parsnip, season with salt and brown in a frying pan with the oil. Add to the broth together with the thyme, bring to the boil then simmer for 12 minutes until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool.
- Rinse the rice and add to the strained broth, cooking according to the packet instructions until the rice is al dente.
- Shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces, discarding the skin and bones, dice the vegetables and add all to the broth and rice together with the parsley. Stir and serve.
Based on a recipe found at www.moldovenii.md
