Rice bowls with chicken and veggies

This recipe is designed to be easy to be a batch preparation as well as easy to both customize and scale.

Prep time: 15-20 minutes. Cook time: 45-55 minutes

Description

A classic combination of chicken and rice, topped with veggies, and layering in some flavors, this can be re-worked for variety using the same techniques with different seasonings or vegetables.

Tips and substitutions to know in advance

This is more of a formula than a recipe. Crunchy vegetables bring a different texture to the dish, but the specific crunchy vegetable can be easily changed out for something that fits your situation best.

Ingredients

• Chicken, cooked, scaled to your desired number of portions. Try ½ chicken breast, 1 ½ thighs, or about 3-4oz ready-to-eat chicken per person
• Rice, cooked (1-2 cooked cups per portion). This could be stovetop, microwave, rice cooker, or baked rice
• Radishes, sliced or chopped (1-2 radishes per portion)
• Cucumbers, sliced or chopped (½-1 mini cuke or about ⅛ of a seedless cucumber per portion)
• Your favorite oil & vinegar style dressing (bottled) or try a lemony option like this one
• Rice wine vinegar to taste (try 1 tsp per portion)
• Soy sauce to taste (try ½ tsp per portion)

Suggested chicken seasoning: 2 Tbsp lemon pepper (salt free), ½ tsp salt

Topping if desired: chopped green onions (scallions) or parsley

Process

For the chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Add oil to oven safe dish
3. Place chicken in dish, season side facing up with 1 Tbsp of lemon pepper and ¼ tsp salt
4. Flip chicken over, season the now facing up side with 1 Tbsp of lemon pepper and ¼ tsp salt
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes for chicken breast or 35-45 minutes for chicken thighs until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Rest chicken for 5-10 minutes before cutting if possible
6. Can be used immediately or stored whole, cut into slices, shredded, large pieces, any way that supports future use

For the rice: Try Baked Rice, your favorite rice cooking method, or a microwave option like this one

For the veggies:

1. Slice or chop veggies. If preparing in advance, consider storing in an airtight container with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture

Assembling all together:

1. Add rice to a bowl, ideally one that will only be filled about halfway with rice
2. Add rice vinegar and soy sauce if using
3. If reheating rice from refrigerator, microwave on high for 1 minute, then on 50% power for 2 minutes
4. If reheating chicken from refrigerator, add to rice during reheating, keeping chicken on top of rice one side of the bowl
5. After heating rice and chicken as needed, add veggies to the other half of the bowl
6. Drizzle veggies with dressing
7. Top with scallions or parsley if using and enjoy!

Notes for storage and reworking later

• By assembling bowls from components, everything can be stored separately allowing for better reheating and customization in proportions.
• Different dressings or different veggies can add variety to the same chicken and rice components.