Black Bean Rice with Chicken

“Black Bean Rice with Chicken”, sounds mouthful and delicious doesn’t it?

As I mentioned in my Pan-Fried Salmon Post some time ago me and a fellow blogger Asmita, we ran a healthy cooking contest and I had to rack my brains and this was the outcome of that.

I created this protein-packed, nutritious and gluten-free recipe, Black Bean Rice with Chicken.

The best part about this recipe is that it is a one-pot meal, which is great right? I love one-pot meals and specially balanced meals like this one.

To up the ante, I made this Black Bean Rice with Chicken with brown rice.

Now, these days there are some studies which have shown that brown rice can have traces of arsenic so I opted for organic brown rice. But should you be concerned about it, I would recommend sticking to the white rice instead.

I carefully chose ingredients for this dish as I wanted my first dish to shine in that contest. I added black beans because rice and beans are such a classic combination of protein-packed meals for the vegetarian diet. And if you want to omit the chicken from this dish it is still a very balanced meal.

So this is how you make this delicious dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of brown rice
• 2 ½ cup chicken broth or water
• 250g skinless chicken leg 
• 1 can of black beans 
• 2 banana shallots or red onion medium diced
• 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped 
• 2 or to taste red chilli finely chopped 
• 1 or to taste crushed black pepper 
• 1 tsp dried or fresh thyme 
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley 
• 1 tsp or to taste red chilli flakes 
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions:

Marinate the chicken with salt, a pinch of black pepper, chilli flakes and thyme for 30 minutes. 

In a heavy pot or a cast iron pot add in some oil and place the chicken. Place a heavyweight and brown it from both sides. Let it rest for 5 minutes and cut in thin strips, keep it aside.

In the same pan, add rest of the oil, add in the garlic and shallots. Sweat them for 5 minutes. Add in the chilli, rest of the black pepper, parsley salt and rice. Parch the rice for 2-3 minutes. 

Now add in the black beans, chicken pieces and broth. Reduce the heat, cover the pot keeping it ajar for 40-45 minutes. Let it stand for 5 minutes. 

Fluff the rice with a fork and serve with pesto or Green Healthy Sauce. 

Chef tips:

• You can soak the brown rice in water for 30 minutes, that will decrease the cooking time by 10-15 minutes.

• The ratio of water to brown rice depends on the variety of your rice. Depending on the quality and grain of your rice you may have to adjust the water quantity.
• You can replace chicken with mushroom and stock with mushroom stock.

• For chicken, you use a meat hammer or a rolling pin to flatten it out. That will give a good texture to the chicken and it cooks evenly.