Easy Chicken Pilau

Serves 2  Cooking and prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 large boneless chicken thighs cut into small chunks

1 small onion chopped

Sunflower oil

3 tsp curry paste of own choice

A cup of Basmati rice

1.5 cup of mixed frozen veg

A handful of spinach leaves

2 cups of chicken stock – (stock cube dissolved in hot water, if you don’t have time to make some.)

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Rinse the rice under cold running water, until the water runs clear. Remove any husks or grit that maybe in the rice. Pour the water away and set the rice aside.
2. Heat the chopped onion in a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil, in a frying pan for about 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add the chopped chicken pieces and cook until the outside changes colour, turn it around in the pan to cook all over.
4. Then add the curry paste and rice to the pan.
5. Cook for a further minute.
6. Pour in the chicken stock.
7. Add the larger pieces of frozen veg which need longer cooking time.
8. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover with a lid and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Stir in the rest of the vegetables, including washed spinach and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the stock is absorbed and rice is cooked.
10. Check to see if rice is cooked by rubbing a grain of rice between your thumb and index finger, if there are no hard bits then it is cooked.
11. Season with salt and pepper and give everything a good stir before serving.

Top Tip:

1. If the rice appear too wet, place a tea towel on top of the pan and place the lid on top for 10 minutes to soak up the excess moisture. Return to heat to warm through then serve.
2. If the rice appears too dry and there are hard bits when tested, add one or two tablespoons of water and continue cooking till the rice becomes soft. Be careful not to let the rice burn.
3. Excess water can be removed as top tip 1 above, do not try to dry the rice out over the heat as it may stick and burn.
4. Alternatively make a vegetable pilau using vegetable stock, or a meat pilau, using meat stock, even a prawn one using fish stock for variety.