This chicken curry rice bake is jam packed full of flavour and is super easy to make – you’re going to love it!
This recipe serves one – just double up as needed!
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Ingredients
65g basmati rice
1 teaspoon turmeric (divided equally in 2)
1 chicken breast
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
15 cherry tomatoes cut in quarters (this is 125g of tomato)
2 teaspoons of curry powder (I use a medium curry powder but use a mild or spicy one if you prefer)
1 tablespoon light soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon cream
Natural yoghurt to serve
1/4 red pepper diced
1/4 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 carrot, diced
Directions
- Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- First make the curry sauce. Add the diced onion to a pot with a little unsalted butter, olive oil and a pinch of salt and cook over low – medium heat until the onion is nice and soft. Then add the garlic and stir for a few seconds before adding 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric and the curry powder. Stir for a minute or so to cook and then add the tomatoes, sugar, cream and 125ml water. Bring to a simmer and leave to simmer away for around 5 minutes. Then leave the sauce to cool before blending until smooth.
- While the sauce is cooling, make the rice. Rinse the rice well with cold water. Add the rice to a pot over medium heat with a little bit of butter / olive oil (a teaspoon or so). Stir so all the rice is coated with the butter / oil. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and stir again to make sure every grain of rice is coated in the golden powder. Pour in 130ml of water from a recently boiled kettle, bring to the boil then turn the heat down. Cover the pot and leave the rice to cook for 10 minutes over low – medium heat. Don’t stir during this time. After 10 minutes, remove the pot from the heat and fluff the rice up with a fork. It will be a fabulous golden colour. If you have time, cover the pot with a clean tea towel (off the heat) and leave for 10 more minutes.
- While the rice is cooking, cook your chicken. I like to poach the chicken so it’s really tender and easy to shred. To do this, put the chicken in a pot and cover with cold water (have at least an inch of water above the chicken). Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover. Leave to simmer for around 8 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer (which I would really recommend getting if you don’t) the chicken is done when the internal temperature is 75 degrees Celsius. I would check before the 8 minutes is up as the cooking time depends on the size of the chicken you’re using. The chicken will cook more in the oven later so you don’t have to worry too much about this. When the chicken is done, remove from the pot and place on a clean chopping board. Use two forks to shred the chicken.
- Mix the rice, chicken, sauce and diced red and yellow pepper and carrot together. Pour into an oven proof dish and cook for 20 minutes.
- Serve with some natural yoghurt.
