Baked Greek Chicken and Oregano Rice
Try this Baked Greek Chicken and Oregano Rice recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Baked Greek Chicken and Oregano Rice recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp salt
- garnish:
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- black pepper
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- chicken and marinade:
- 5 chicken thighs (skin on and bone in)
- 4 tablespoons lemon (freshly squeezed)
- rice:
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil separated
- 1 small onion chopped finely
- 1 cup long grain rice (i used basmati rice)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (see note)
- finely chopped coriander
- Carbohydrate 1.78440466699823 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.153729333386081 g
- Fiber 0.613806654069537 g
- Protein 0.368698000056607 g
- Saturated Fat 0.034927333347022 g
- Serving Size 1 1 serving (40g)
- Sodium 2.79013333461261 mg
- Sugar 1.17059801292869 g
- Trans Fat 0.0315473333420303 g
- Calories 8 calories
Step-by-step
- To Marinate:
- Combine the Chicken and Marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag and set aside for at least 20 minutes but preferably overnight.
- To Cook:
- Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
- Take the chicken out from the marinade. Do not throw the marinade away, its got tons of flavor.
- Heat ½ tbsp olive oil in a frying pan.
- Place the chicken in the frying pan, skin side down, and cook until the skin is crispy and golden brown. Then turn and cook the other side until golden brown. Remove the chicken and set aside.
- Pour off the oil and fat from the pan, and wipe it clean with a paper towel.
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes until lightly pale and translucent. Then add the rest of the rice ingredients along with the reserved marinade.
- Let the liquid come to a simmer and let it simmer for 30 seconds. In a 9 inch baking pan place this rice mixture, making sure to spread it evenly. Add the chicken thighs skin side up on the rice. Cover with foil and let it bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove the foil and bake for another 35 minutes until rice is done. (See Notes)
- Remove from the oven and garnish with freshly chopped coriander.
An ingredient list cannot convey how four tablespoons of fresh lemon juice alters raw poultry protein over an extended resting window. Acidic marinades denature the outer layers of chicken thighs, unravelling peptide chains so they absorb aromatic compounds like garlic and dried oregano more effectively. Leaving the meat in contact with citrus overnight alters the surface texture, but acid can eventually render protein chalky if left past twenty-four hours, making that threshold a hard operational ceiling. Browning skin-on, bone-in thighs skin-side down in a hot frying pan initiates the Maillard reaction, developing complex savory flavor compounds while rendering out subcutaneous fat. Pouring off excess grease before sautéing the finely chopped onion prevents the cooking fat from coating the starch granules too heavily, which would otherwise block the long-grain rice from hydrating evenly in the oven. Retaining the spent marinade and combining it directly with chicken stock introduces necessary moisture and residual aromatics into the grain layer. Transferring the simmered rice mixture to a nine-inch baking pan and arranging the seared pieces on top allows fat to drip downward during the final unfoil baking phase, enriching the starches as they finish cooking at 180C or 350F. Covering the pan with foil for the first ten minutes traps steam to soften the grains, while removing the cover for the subsequent thirty-five minutes guarantees crispy skin and complete evaporation of excess liquid. For advanced meal preparation, assemble the raw chicken and marinade components up to twenty-four hours prior, or freeze the unbaked dish tightly wrapped for up to two months, thawing completely in the refrigerator before applying heat. Swapping basmati for jasmine requires monitoring the liquid ratio closely, as different starches absorb moisture at varying rates during the final bake.
