Chicken and Rice

This chicken and rice recipe is pure comfort food. It's a family favorite in our house and we love that it makes plenty for leftovers too.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 3 30

Total Time 3 50

Servings

Calories 370kcal

Author Karly Campbell

Ingredients

4 pounds whole chicken
4 carrots
3 stalks celery
1 large onion halved
2 cloves garlic rough chopped
1 teaspoon salt more to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper more to taste
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon celery salt
3 cups long grain white rice

Instructions

Remove the neck and giblets from the chicken if included and place the chicken in a large stock pot.
Chop the carrots and all of the celery into 3 or 4 chunks each and add to the pot, along with onion, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and celery salt. Add enough water to fully cover the chicken and vegetables.
Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat and cook at a low simmer for about 3 hours. The chicken should be very tender and easily come off the bone when done.
Remove chicken from the pot and set aside to cool a bit. Use forks (or your hands if cool enough) to pull off small chunks of meat. Remove all of the meat from the chicken and set aside. Discard carcass.
Strain the broth from the pot into a large bowl, discarding the vegetables or saving them for another use.
Add 6 cups of broth, the shredded chicken, and the rice to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 15 minutes.
Add another cup of broth to the pot, stir, and cover. Simmer for 5 minutes more.
Continue to add broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring and checking every 5 minutes until the rice is tender and cooked through. You'll need to taste test to check for doneness. Keep your heat fairly low to avoid burning the bottom of the rice.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Notes

Veggies: The recipe says to discard the vegetables from the broth, but the truth is that I strain them out and eat the carrots with my hands, standing over the counter, practically burning my mouth off. I love making chicken broth because the boiled carrots are so flipping tasty.

Rice: This recipe doesn't have a set amount of broth you'll need or a specific cook time for the rice. It'll depend on how high you have your heat, honestly. Just grab a little spoonful and take a bite every 5 minutes to see if it needs to cook longer. It's pretty hard to mess this up, so long as you don't have your heat so high that it burns the bottom of the pot. (And even then, the rest of the pot will be fine and you'll still have a delicious dinner.)

Weeknight Hack: If you don't have 4 hours to make this from scratch, start by shredding a rotisserie chicken and using a couple boxes of chicken stock. Start the recipe at step 6 and you'll shave off 3 hours of cooking time.

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