Stovetop Chicken and Rice
Instructions:
- A workday dish, this has become a favorite in our cooking classes. It’s rich and homey—and ever so easy, thanks to dried mushrooms and no-fuss thigh quarters. Makes 4 servings (can be doubled)
- 1 ounce dried mushrooms, such as shiitakes, morels, porcini, chanterelles, or a mixture
- 21â„2 cups boiling water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- Four 8- to 10-ounce skin-on drumstickand- thigh quarters, visible excess fat removed
- 1â„2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 medium shallots, fi nely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2â„3 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth, or more as necessary
- 3â„4 cup white rice
- 2 bay leaves
- 1â„2 teaspoon salt
- Place the mushrooms in a medium bowl, add the boiling water, and set aside until fragrant and pliable, about 20 minutes.
- Heat a deep 12-inch skillet or a medium Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the olive oil, then melt the butter. Season the chicken quarters with pepper and slip them into the pan skin side down. Cook until golden, about 5 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure they haven’t stuck.
- Turn the quarters. Sprinkle the shallots and garlic among them. Cook for 2 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
- Pour in the wine or vermouth. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits under the chicken pieces. Simmer until the vermouth or wine has been reduced to a glaze, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add the rice, making sure that no grains are stuck on top of the chicken but that they’re evenly distributed in the pan. Take the mushrooms out of their liquid and sprinkle them in the pan, pressing them down among the chicken pieces. Strain the mushroom liquid into the pan through a fi nemesh sieve (to catch any sand or grit), pouring the liquid over the chicken to catch any rice grains and wash them to the bottom. Tuck in the bay leaves.
- Shake the pan to distribute everything evenly and bring the sauce to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer slowly until the rice is tender and a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh without touching bone registers 165°F (our preference) or 180°F (the USDA recommendation), 15 to 20 minutes. If you fi nd that the pan is drying out during the last few minutes of cooking, add more wine in 1â„4-cup increments and lower the heat further; if there’s too much liquid in the pan, uncover it during the last few minutes of cooking so that there’s just a light sauce with the rice in the pan. Season with salt before serving.
- Variations:
- Add 2 teaspoons chopped tarragon leaves or 2 teaspoons stemmed thyme with the wine or vermouth.
- Substitute red wine for the white wine; if you do, use 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, omitting the olive oil.
- For an Italian taste, use dry Marsala instead of the white wine.