Baked Chicken in the Oven with Fried Rice

How to boil the chicken

1. It is hard to just bake a chicken as it is. Baked chicken will be much tastier if you boil it before baking.

2. Prepare the chicken: wash it, remove any remaining feathers, and trim off excess inner fat. The chicken must be fresh.

   

3. Put the chicken in a large pot and cover with cold water so that the water just covers the chicken. Bring to a boil over high heat and be sure to skim off the foam. I don’t know why, but store-bought chicken gives a lot of foam when boiled. Then again, what can you expect from a chicken that grew to 1.5 kg in 1.5-2 months instead of 3-4 months?

4. Once the foam stops forming, add 1 scant teaspoon of salt (5 g) to the pot, preferably coarse rock salt. To be honest, I can’t salt “by feel” and always miss. Add the peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, and the chopped root vegetables. You want to end up with a good broth.

   

5. Cover the pot with a lid, reduce the heat to the minimum, and cook in barely simmering water for about 30 mins.

   

How to bake the chicken in the oven

1. Take the boiled chicken out of the broth and let it cool a little. Do not pour the broth out, it will go into the rice. Brush the chicken generously with 2 tbsp of butter.

   

3. Bake the chicken in an oven preheated to 220°C for 1 hour, on a baking sheet or in a baking dish, until golden brown. Counting the time to heat up, that is enough. There is no need to turn the chicken or baste it with the fat.

   This way the chicken gets a wonderful flavor and aroma and a superb crust. The meat becomes soft and juicy. Even I, not a fan of “white” chicken meat, was more than happy.

   

How to make fried rice

1. While the chicken is baking, you can make the side dish. After reading many recipes and listening to a sea of opinions, I still understood nothing. Once, in San Francisco, I tried wonderful rice in Chinatown. And last year in Bulgaria the rice was very good too. But everywhere it is cooked differently.

   Choose long-grain, fluffy rice. I never buy rice of unknown origin and unknown variety. If it just says “Rice”, then… That is the same as writing “Food”. I took basmati rice. It is quite good for frying, fluffy and aromatic.

   

2. Boil the rice in the broth, since it has to be boiled before frying. Rinse 1 cup of rice (180 g) in cold water. Bring 1.5 cups of the chicken broth (300 ml) left from boiling the chicken to a boil. Add the rice and, stirring, bring to a boil again.

   

   Immediately reduce the heat to the minimum, cover the pot with a lid, and leave for 15 minutes. During this time the rice will absorb all the liquid and cook until done.

3. In a frying pan over medium heat, melt the remaining 2 tbsp of butter and fry the rice until all the moisture has evaporated and the grains start to separate from each other. Rice is usually fried for 10-15 minutes. Strictly speaking, in China rice is fried in sesame or corn oil. But butter is somehow more familiar to us.

4. Add 1 tsp of good soy sauce to the rice, not that cocktail of additives, and fry for 5 more minutes.

   

   The side dish is ready.

   

Serving

1. Put the rice on a platter together with the vegetables the chicken was cooked with, and add a little fresh herbs. Place the whole baked chicken on top. For more of an impression, the chicken is not carved before serving. It looks more impressive that way!

   Baked chicken with rice is a great option for a family celebration.