I love one pot meals – super easy to throw together and you can use up whatever leftover vegetables you have in the fridge. Although this uses chicken you could equally make this vegan and replace the chicken with a couple of cans of chickpeas or cooked beans. I used a jar of salsa verde for simplicity making this an ideal store-cupboard recipe. Perfect for weekday meals.
Overview
Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 50-60 minutes
What’s Good About It?
One pot meals are quick and easy to assemble with minimum fuss – this version crams in a range of vegetables as well as herbs for plenty of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Vary the vegetables according to what you have available. Frozen vegetables would also work well.
- Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4.
- Heat a medium oven proof saucepan with a lid over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the oil and saute the onion, courgette and garlic for a couple of minutes.
- Add the chicken and lightly brown for 5 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients except the peas and stir well.
- Bring the mixture to the boil then cover with a lid.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the rice is tender.
- Remove from the oven and stir in the peas. Return to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes
- Garnish with herbs and scatter over pine nuts to serve.
Did You Know?
Instead of salsa verde you can replace with a jar of mild salsa or chopped tomatoes instead.
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1tsp chopped garlic
1 courgette sliced thickly
400g chicken breast, cut into large chunks
1tsp ground cumin
1 jar (300g) salsa verde or tomatillo salsa
salt and black pepper
150g green beans, trimmed and halved if wished
180g long grain rice
225ml chicken stock
150g frozen peas
To garnish – chopped coriander / parsley and pine nuts