On the menu: One-Pot Chicken and Rice with Swiss Chard
I’ve got a new routine. And I am clinging like hell to it.
Here’s how it goes: I plan all our meals for the week on Saturday morning, then we go to the grocery store. That way, I don’t have to worry about what we’re going to eat during the week, when my routine turns into the following: get to school by 9:15 am. Try to stay on task all day; usually fail miserably. Go to the gym around 3, get home by 4:30. Cook dinner. Desperately attempt to do homework. Repeat. I had a meeting in Massachusetts this last Saturday, and on Sunday, as I tried to put together a grocery list, my world fell apart. It was Sunday; I wasn’t supposed to be planning our meals, I was supposed to be on the couch watching TV. Or, you know, reading some papers for school. No, not that. I don’t do work on Sundays. After literally throwing myself on the bed and crying it out, I came back to reality and we got our food for the week. How juvenile, right?
School is exhausting. I discovered fledgling love handles after the holidays, so I hauled myself back to the gym ASAP. Working out is exhausting. Cooking dinner most nights so the guy can work is exhausting. But there are so many rewards from all this effort that I keep pressing on. The meeting I went to over the weekend was related to my research project, and I learned so much about the scale and scope of the project that three days later, my brain is still constantly buzzing about it. It blew my mind. It’d be nice to not have little love handles anymore, you know? And dinners have been great lately–we’re trying all kinds of new things, and I’m cooking through recipes I’ve held onto for months.
Like this one. I was enamored by the swiftness and simplicity of this recipe. One pot, all the fixings: a meat, a carbohydrate, and some vegetables. I was craving the comforting cooking I grew up with, but I wanted something more suited to my adult tastes. This fit the bill. Chock full of my favorite green, Swiss chard, with the added benefit of toothsome carrots and chard stems, I knew this would be a winner. Cooking the chicken first over high heat makes the skin shatteringly crisp, and to save that skin, I finished the chicken in the oven, not in the steamy heat of the simmering rice and vegetables as the original recipe instructed. It might not be one pot anymore, but it was worth it!
Back to the routine.
(almost) One-Pot Chicken and Rice with Swiss Chard
adapted from Everyday Food
4 chicken thighs, patted dry
Coarse salt and ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems cut into 1/2-inch pieces, leaves torn into 2-inch pieces
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups white rice (use what you have on hand; we used jasmine)
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken, skin side down, and cook until browned on both sides, 12 minutes, turning once. With tongs, transfer chicken to a small dish and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes. A meat thermometer should read at least 165°F at it’s thickest point.
Meanwhile, reduce heat in the Dutch oven to medium and add garlic, chard stems, onion, and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chard stems and onion are translucent, about 4 minutes. Add chard leaves, lemon zest, and rice; cook 1 minute. Add broth and bring to a rapid simmer. Reduce to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken, skin side up, on top of rice mixture and cook, covered, until chicken is cooked through and liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve.
bless your sweet heart: haven’t we all had that sunday where we full-on cry it out on our beds about how much we have to do and how little time we have to do it in. I’ve been there, girl! I’m happy to hear you pulled yourself out of it. And look what you made! That looks delicious (and perfect to help those burgeoning love handles go away, although i’m doubting you have much to worry about there.) here’s to well-planned dinners during the week.
You speak such truths! Your Sunday was far more stressful than mine, with the ground beef and all. We made a ground beef curry last night but we used ground turkey instead. It was Kevin’s idea, and although it CLASHED WITH THE PLANS, I let him do it. He wasn’t that into it, but I was a big fan.
Lately I’ve been considering the fact that I might need to get better at planning meals ahead for the week, mainly because I want to move out of the city and far far into the country this summer. (I discovered this place on craigslist yesterday, and I will be crying myself to sleep for the next couple months because it’s too far away from Johnny’s cafe. And also a bit too expensive. *sigh*) But I got a little taste of meal planning when I was at my parent’s place, since they live about half an hour from a decent market/grocery store. I’m usually such a scatterbrain when it comes to thinking ahead, but I didn’t do too bad, considering. It definitely lends so much more structure to the week, and gives you freedom to focus on other things during the day.
(Also, I desperately need a Dutch oven so I can make things like this. And super crispy bread. My mom has gotten into buying me one expensive kitchen item for Christmas, so maybe I’ll save that for my December wishlist.)
Oh, God, we’re moving to the coast this summer, and we’ll most likely end up 20 minutes from the grocery store instead of just 2 minutes like we are now. I inadvertently started planning meals well ahead of the big move!
That house. Oh, that house. Perfect. We are desperately looking for housing in Damariscotta and having little luck so far. We have until July, but still. Yikes!
Carey, my dad got me a KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER (!!!!) for Christmas this year! Unfortunately it’s stuck in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan until he finally sends it to me, but I have one, and it is mine. Our Dutch oven is aluminum; I too long for the day when I can finally buy my dream vessel.
Moving gives me such anxiety. I love looking for new places, but it seems like there’s such a small window where what you’re looking at actually works with your time frame. Still there’s nothing better than moving into a new, empty space, and filling it with things!
I can’t believe you have to be separated from your Kitchen Aid! I bet that thing is probably a pain to ship, but still…Kitchen Aid!! That was the first big kitchen gift my mom got me for Christmas. (I found a super sweet deal on the Professional series, but I hate to say that I almost regret the decision because I really like the tilt head feature on the Artisan models.) This year she bought me a 14-cup Cuisinart food processor, which is one serious, scary piece of machinery. And because my mom is online-shopping illiterate and there’s no sales tax in VT, she always has me buy the stuff and ship it to my apartment. So these wonderful things sit in my place for weeks, and I can’t use them. I guess it’s kind of the exact opposite of your situation, but with the same result — torture! (:
I’m reading all kinds of recipes–mostly for cinnamon rolls and other sticky bread doughs, and I’m like “Oh! I can make that!” and then I’m like “Wait, I can’t.” SO torturous.
Sometimes you just need to have a good solid stress cry to relieve your anxiety. It sucks when you’re having the mini-breakdown but afterwards there’s definitely the feeling that something has been unloaded from the mental stress bunker. I am intrigued by your research project, too! What are you studying at school?
I admire your dedication to this schedule, I have been trying to start running around my neighborhood again but it has been going….not so well. And I’m not even working right now *no excuses*. Alas, this chicken meal does look really delicious and actually very healthy! I always forget that you can mixed cooked greens in with rice for an easy veggie serving, I need to start doing that. Very smart!
I certainly felt better afterwards! And then I went and had a pretty productive week at school, which was pretty sweet. I study landscape ecology; my research involves assessing landscape-level conditions of four crops in the Northeast US and how those conditions affect pollination efficiency of native pollinators. Honeybees aren’t a native species; they’re imported from Europe! And now they’re dying off in large numbers and getting really expensive for farmers to obtain. So I’m a part of a project looking into all kinds of aspects of native pollinators in order to increase their pollination efficiency. It’s really fascinating work.
That is so interesting! I’ve just started getting into reading about bees and my goodness, are they fascinating! I just finished reading “The Queen Must Die, and Other Tales of Bees and Men” which was incredibly well written and really informative for someone with no prior knowledge of hive life like myself. I’d highly recommend it, but you already know all of the stuff about hive life I am sure haha, but it would be a fun read nevertheless, I think.
I don’t know anything about keeping bees, actually! I could tell you all about the types of landscapes native pollinators are most efficient in, though! The joys of doing super-specific research
That books sounds fascinating. Honeybees are fascinating little creatures. Thanks for the recommendation!
Ahhh, life…it is indeed exhausting at times and we do have to fall apart. Sigh…be kind to yourself. Your menu planning schedule sounds ideal and I am always attempting to do something similar. This one pot chicken looks terrific and like it would fit well with a busy week. Hang in there! Wishing you a relaxing weekend ahead.
Thank you, as always, for your kind words, Hannah!
your routine is brilliant, if only i could achieve such organization and consistency!!
Haha, thanks! It keeps me semi-sane