Chicken Breast and Rice

Pat the chicken breasts completely dry with kitchen paper. This is the step most people skip and the reason most chicken breast ends up pale instead of golden. Mix the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the spice mix all over every surface of the chicken generously, not politely. Set aside while you prep the rice.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in an oven-safe pan or casserole dish over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, lay the chicken breasts in, leave them completely undisturbed for 3–4 minutes until a proper golden crust has formed. Flip and sear the other side for 2 minutes. Remove and set on a plate. Do not clean the pan. Those caramelised bits on the bottom are what makes the rice taste like something.

Reduce the heat to medium. In the same pan, cook the diced onion for 4–5 minutes, scraping up any browned bits as you go. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the rinsed rice and toast it in the pan for 1–2 minutes, stirring until the grains look slightly translucent at the edges. This one extra minute is the difference between fluffy rice and a stodgy middle.

Cover the pan tightly with a lid or foil. Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for a further 5–8 minutes until the chicken top is golden and a thermometer reads 74°C / 165°F at the thickest point. Rest for 5 minutes before serving, just like the baked chicken recipe rule says, the rest is not optional. Scatter with fresh parsley or coriander and serve with lemon wedges alongside.

Squeeze half a lemon into the stock before it goes in. Add a small bunch of fresh thyme. Finish with lemon zest and chopped parsley when it comes out of the oven. Lighter, brighter, still exactly a chicken rice recipe, still one pan.

Add ½ tsp each of cinnamon, cardamom, and ground cloves to the spice rub. Swap in basmati rice and add a small handful of raisins with the stock. A handful of toasted flaked almonds scattered over at the end. The chicken and rice recipe that gets asked about at the table.

Stir 3 tbsp crème fraîche or cream cheese into the warm stock before pouring. The result is somewhere between a risotto and a baked chicken recipe, not dairy-free, but deeply comforting on a cold evening. Kids will not complain.

Thirty seconds under cold water removes the excess starch that turns the texture gluey. Worth doing every time.

Don't transfer to a baking dish, the flavour is in the fond at the bottom of the pan you seared in. That's the whole point of this chicken recipes approach.

If your stock cube count is running low, pantrly will flag it before your next cook, so the one ingredient you always seem to run out of mid-recipe never catches you short again.