This dish is perfect for busy people who are looking for easy, healthy meal prep ideas! It’s a low effort alternative to fried rice. This is quicker to make, with less clean up too.

Prep time: 3 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes for rice, 25 minutes for chicken in the oven

Serves: 1

Ingredients for Oven-Baked Chicken

• 250g chicken breast, cubed

• extra virgin olive oil

• salt

• herb & spice blend (read Notes, point 3) - I used Bavarian Chicken Roast blend from Melbourne

• black pepper

• 1/2 - 1 tbsp honey

Method for Oven-Baked Chicken

• Preheat oven to 185ºC

• Dry and cube chicken breast

• Add olive oil, salt, black pepper, herbs and spices to the chicken. Ensure that all the ingredients are well mixed.

• Add honey

• Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes

Notes

1. You can leave the chicken breast whole, but cutting it into smaller pieces will shorten the cooking time and also make this dish easier to eat with bite-sized pieces

2. Boneless chicken thigh would be a good option too if you prefer it

3. I’ll recommend this mix of herbs & spices - dried rosemary/thyme, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic and onion powder. You can also use cajun seasoning.

4. If you don’t enjoy sweetness in your meat, you can omit honey or add just a little. I feel the honey balances out the flavours and also goes well with the tasty bone broth rice.

5. You can add sugar instead of honey, but perhaps 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon will do.

Ingredients for Bone Broth Veggie Rice

• 1 cup rice, washed & drained - I used thai hom mali white rice

• Chicken bone broth or stock - This is what I used

• Extra virgin olive oil

• 1/3 white onion, diced or minced

• Frozen vegetable mix - This is what I used

• Salt

• Black pepper

• Paprika or cayenne pepper (optional)

Method for Bone Broth Veggie Rice

• Heat pot and add olive oil, followed by onions

• Sauté onions until fragrant and translucent, then add in rice

• Sauté everything until well mixed, then add in frozen vegetables, salt, black pepper and paprika and mix well again

• Then add chicken bone broth until it covers just above 1 cm of the rice (read Notes, point 4)

• Close the pot lid and let it simmer gently on medium heat for about 10 minutes, all the water should be dried up. If not let it go longer for a couple more minutes, checking frequently without touching the rice.

• Check for rice doneness after 10 minutes by taste-testing the rice on the surface. It is not necessary to mix or dig deep into the rice in case the rice is not cooked and need to go for longer.

• Once rice is done, turn off heat and fluff up the rice. Let the rice stand for a few minutes with the lid half closed before serving.

Notes

1. 1 cup of rice follows Imperial measurement of 195 - 200g, NOT the usual rice cup you have at home. Each of our rice cups/cans are likely to be of different sizes so this Imperial measurement is the closest accuracy I can get.

2. You may also use fresh veggies for this dish, which should then be cooked for a few minutes in Step 2, before adding rice in. If using leafy greens that cook fast like spinach, add in step 6 or 7.

3. Add salt, black pepper and paprika to taste. This depends on whether your bone broth or stock is salted. Add salt just the way you like it if you are using non-salted liquid. Lower amount of salt if your broth/liquid is already (mildly) salted.

4. You can use vegetable broth or beef bone broth as well, do note that the flavour will be slightly different but still delicious! Our go-to would be chicken.

5. I did not specify the amount of liquid as our pot sizes are different. From our experience, it doesn’t matter which size of pot, the liquid level will stay the same. But to increase accuracy, the pot size we used is 16cm (tap for link).

6. Simmer means some light bubbling that will not cause any overflow. The heat should not be so high which results in boiling of liquid out of the pot when the lid is on.

7. Turning off the heat and letting the rice stand before serving ensures all moisture is properly absorbed by the rice. If your rice is a tad bit undercooked, this step should result in perfectly cooked rice!

8. We are aware that cooking rice is tricky to teach because it involves high precision and appropriate ratio of rice:water. Plus, every family eats different types/brands of rice and enjoys rice with different textures. We simply cannot cover all bases. Do exercise your cooking smarts and intuition when it comes to this because only you know your rice best!

9. Do note that if you use a stainless steel pot, a bit of sticking at the bottom is normal. You can use a nonstick cookware for this recipe as well.