A stellar recipe – with the mushrooms playing a star role, but all the comforts, too, of a simple, home cooked kind of casserole with chicken and rice.
This recipe has legs. Well, maybe I should qualify that – this recipe, which makes a lot – can be made into 3 different meals if you’re not feeding 8-10 people at the beginning: (1) the first, a casserole; (2) with more mushrooms as a 2nd serving (microwaved); and (3) mixed with broth, more mushrooms and peas, as SOUP.
The original, which supposedly feeds 8, makes a bunch. The pan above in the photo is a 5” high sided nonstick pan I use a lot. Since I’m a family of one, it was probably more than I needed. But my cousin Gary was visiting over Christmas, and before he got sick and only wanted soup, I made this. I’m glad I did, as he ate lunch from it twice when I was off with family for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then, a couple of days later I took a bunch from it and gave it to my dear friend Gloria and her husband for a dinner. She had enough for a dinner AND a lunch portion. Once Gary flew home, I re-invented it once again. I bought another 8 ounces of fresh brown mushrooms and made another batch of the mushroom topping and ate it as a reheated plate (microwaved) with more hot-water-rinsed peas on top. When there was STILL a small amount left, I made it into soup with more of that mushroom broth concentrate stuff. Oh, was that good, too.
I think this dish would feed 10 (unless they’re hungry teen-agers). The recipe came from the New York Times, and was designated as one of the top 10 for 2017. It may not look like anything special, but it was really, really good. For me – since I added more mushrooms to it (because I like them) – it was comfort food, for sure. It was filling and it was pretty. The making of it is easy enough – most of it is done in the one big pot (chicken, mushrooms and rice with lots of added flavors like wine, thyme, onion). Then it’s baked for a brief time and while that’s happening, you sauté some additional mushrooms (the more varied the mixture, the better). I didn’t go shopping to different stores to find oddball mushrooms (I used brown and shiitake), and when I re-made it with the leftovers, I used only brown crimini mushrooms.
Thinking about this . . . if I make this again I think I’ll use some of the riced cauliflower as the “rice” in this dish. I’d need to adapt the cooking times, but it would be a whole lot less carbs. Just food for thought.
What’s GOOD: the overall flavor is marvelous. One might not think such simple ingredients could yield such umami flavor (must be the mushrooms?) but it did. If serving to guests, I’d double the amount of mushroom topping too (it gives it a really pretty “look”). Read recipe for how to use the left overs. Just know that this dish is very rice-centric.
What’s NOT: nothing, really. Altogether good recipe, worth making.
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)
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Baked Rice With Chicken and Mushrooms
Recipe By: adapted slightly from New York Times, one of the best recipes of 2017, by David Tanis
Serving Size: 9
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs — cut into 1-1/2-inch chunks
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion — diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 large sprig thyme — plus 1 teaspoon freshly chopped leaves or use half the amount of dried thyme, pressed firmly in your palms
1 bay leaf
1 cup white wine — vermouth would work here
2 cups basmati rice — soaked for 20 minutes, rinsed and drained
16 ounces mushrooms — use a mixture of mushrooms, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/4 cup dried mushrooms — reconstituted in water
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth — heated
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup frozen peas — rinsed in hot tap water for 30 seconds
2 small garlic cloves — smashed to a paste with a little salt
3 tablespoons chopped parsley — with extra for garnish, if desired
1. Place chicken pieces on a baking sheet and season generously with salt and pepper. Set aside. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Pour olive oil into a 4-quart enamelware Dutch oven or similar heavy pot and set over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until nicely browned, 8 to 10 minutes, then season with salt. Add chicken, thyme sprig and bay leaf, and continue to cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more.
3. Add wine and simmer briskly until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
4. Add reconstituted mushrooms, the rice and a large handful of the fresh mushrooms and stir to combine. (Reserve most of the raw mushrooms for garnish.) Add broth and bring to a simmer. Check broth for seasoning and adjust.
5. Cover pot and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat. Transfer pot to oven and bake, checking after 10 minutes to see if the rice is cooked through, but may take up to 15 minutes. Finally, remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes off heat.
6. While rice is baking, sauté remaining mushrooms: Melt butter in a large skillet over high heat. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper (add more garlic if you’d like) and cook, rapidly stirring, until they have softened and browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Add peas, if using, and heat through. Turn off heat, then add reserved chopped thyme, the garlic and the parsley. Toss to coat well.
7. Fluff rice (and remove the bay leaf if you can find it), then top with sautéed mushrooms and serve with more parsley on top.
CAROLYN’S NOTES: I prepared this with double the mushrooms (original recipe called for 8 ounces but I’ve upped it in the recipe here). For the 2nd serving a few days later, I bought another 8 ounces of mushrooms and created the mushroom topping again and was lazy, heating the chicken/rice part in the microwave, topping with the extra mushrooms then adding the rinsed-in-hot-water peas to make it pretty. Then with what was left, I made it into soup by adding yet more mushrooms and some mushroom concentrate (broth), then sprinkling the top with some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and parsley. If you’ve had enough of it by then, you could make the soup and freeze it for a few weeks later.
Per Serving: 414 Calories; 16g Fat (34.6% calories from fat); 29g Protein; 40g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 86mg Cholesterol; 246mg Sodium.
Marlene
said on January 28th, 2018:
I skipped right over this on NY Times Cooking, Carolyn, thinking it was too boring. Now that I’ve read what you did with it, I’m saving it! Thanks for the variations, too. I’ve got lots of dried mushrooms that would work well with the fresh and add depth of flavor.
I really liked it – but I love mushrooms so I did add more and kind of made them the focus of the dish. Yet there’s lots of rice too. . . Carolyn T
Toffeeapple
said on January 30th, 2018:
Yum, anything with mushrooms in is fine by me!
hddonna
said on March 12th, 2018:
We really enjoyed this when I finally got around to making it. (Forgot to post my comment for a few weeks). I had skin-on bone-in chicken thighs, and I just pulled off the skin and used them bone-in; it worked fine. The second time around, I boned some of the chicken and mixed it into the rice. I still had a huge amount of rice left over, so I put it in the freezer. That didn’t work so well–when I reheated some later, it was kind of mushy. Next time I think I would use only one cup of rice and half the liquid (though I’m sure it would have all come in handy if I’d had a chance try the soup version also).
I think the recipe has some give-or-take in the quantity of broth and water. Rice does tend to soak up a lot if you let it sit overnight too. Well, now you’ll know about how much to add. So glad you liked it as much as I did! . . . carolyn t