Rice pilaf. With chicken, onions, garlic and carrots.

Here is an easy, light and tasty rice and chicken one pot dish inspired by traditional Uzbekistan dish - "Plov".  This dish is comforting, satisfying and extremely delicious. Make it for dinner and pack for lunch the next day. My family asks to prepare it again and again.

Chicken rice pilaf served, carrot and onion mix, chicken precooked

Chicken Carrot Rice Pilaf (Plov - Плов)

Ingredients
rice, basmati 1 1/2 cups
olive oil, about 3 tablespoons
chicken meat, 1 pound  cut to bite pieces (dark meat or chicken breast)
carrots, 5-6 peeled and grated
onions, medium 4-5, cut to half rings
garlic, 7-12 gloves, peeled and roughly diced
sea salt
black pepper
bay leaves, 2 (optional)

optional spices
cumin, ground
coriander seeds, ground
turmeric
thyme 
chili flakes

Method
Wash the rice under cold water. Cover with water and leave to soak while preparing other ingredients. In big heavy pot, heat 1 tables spoon olive oil on medium low heat. Add chili flakes, if using. Add onions and cook until the onions are soft and slightly brown for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove onions from the pot to plate. Add 1 table spoon of olive oil and carrots to the pot and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add onions back to pot and turn off the heat. Heat large skillet on medium heat, add oil and chicken. Add salt, black pepper and other spices, if using. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, to brown the chicken. No need to cook it completely. Add the chicken to onion carrot mixture and mix. Add garlic on top. Discard rice water and place rice on top of the mix. Carefully, without destroying the structure (rice on top of vegetables and chicken), add water to cover the rice. This is how it will look.

chicken carrot rice pilaf assembled (plov)

Add salt and spices, cover and cook on low heat for about 20-30 minutes, till rice is cooked. Let rest for 10 minutes, if you can. Mix and serve. 



I will tell you a secret - this chicken carrot rice pilaf is delicious cold. As a child I used to eat it straight from the pot in refrigerator.

Nourish. With chicken soup and carrots.

Chicken soup is a staple in our house during colder months of the year. It keeps well and makes lunch preparation a breeze. It nourishing, warming and healing.

Served for lunch at home - chicken noodle soup with carrots and chicken meat

I like it with pasta, rice, quinoa or other grain and leafy green vegetables - kale, bock choy, chard. The kids prefer it with pasta or rice. Good thing they like carrots. From my mom point of view I use way too much carrots. "Carrots make the soup so sweet! I can't eat it" she said. But the kids love it.

This chicken soup is a like my marriage - pairing of Russian and Yemeni. With a lot of carrots, onion and parsnip (Russian side) and hawaij spice mix made of turmeric, pepper, cumin, coriander (Yemeni side). Being multinational has a huge advantage. It allows me to adopt healthy practices from various cultures. Like in this chicken soup. Carrots for vitamins and fiber,  turmeric for its anti inflammation properties.

Chicken carrot soup

Serves 4 with enough leftovers to pack few lunches

Ingredients:
chicken, 1/2 whole natural, preferable organic (see note)

carrots , 5-6 cut to bite pieces

onion, 1 peeled whole
black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon or to taste

sea salt, 1/2 table spoon or to taste
parsley leaves, chopped, 1 table spoon or to taste (optional)

healthy extras (optional)

bone gelatin powder, 2 teaspoons 

1 teaspoons turmeric or 1 teaspoons of hawaii

cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp

bay leaves, 2 

vinegar or lemon juice, 1 tea spoon (acid helps to extract minerals from the bones to the broth)

parsley steams, 4-5 tied using tea bag string

Method
Wash chicken pieces under cold water. Place them in big, preferably heavy pot and cover with cold water. Bring close to boiling on medium high heat. Turn the heat to low. As foam is forming,  discard it using large spoon (slotted works the best). Repeat as needed. Add carrots, onion and any of healthy extras. Simmer for 4 hours to ensure the bird will release minerals, gelatin and other good nutrients into the stock. Add salt and black pepper and simmer for 10 more minutes. Turn off.  Get the cooked meat out and strain the stock. Remove meat from the bones and cut to bite pieces. Return the carrots and the clean meat back into the broth. Discard the bones. Boil the broth for 3 minutes. Serve the broth over cooked regular or whole grain pasta garnished with chopped parsley.

Chicken noodle carrot soup in thermos for school lunch

Serve leftover stock with rice, pasta or whole grain of your choice. My childhood favorite is to boil the stock with potato chunks. Heavenly.

Note

You can get whole chicken and use breast and tight meat for stir fry or other dish and take bones, wings, drumsticks and this little package it has inside for soup.

Questions? Comments? I invite you to discuss.

Homemade baked chicken nuggets with potato and carrot

My husband said: "What is THAT?"

I replied: "My friend, Hila, has shared a baked chicken nuggets recipe when we had tea in Crema cafe today. I have noted to myself - it is time to do something different and new. So here it is".

My husband: "It is really good. Can you make it again?".

I am taking risks from time to time making new recipes. I am calling it risk because my family is not shy in letting me when I "ruin" their meal. So sometimes it is a success, sometimes it is a failure, but how will I know if I don't try? Even though I can have an idea for what my family might like, but I can get too excited with a new recipe. Like a little boy with a new fire truck toy. And it is OK.

David and Mai both loved the nuggets. I know it, they were dipping the chicken nuggets in organic ketchup and licking their fingers. The kids had those healthy baked chicken bites for lunch 2 days in the row, with great enthusiasm.

Baked chicken nuggets served with curry basmati rice, zucchini and shiitake mushrooms and cucumber, chicken nuggets before baking, mixture and bread crumbs in background

Healthy, filling and easy recipe.

Ingredients
ground chicken breast or dark meat, 1 pound
bread crumbs, 3 table spoons (I used homemade whole wheat sourdough breadcrumbs)
potatoes, 2 small
carrots, 2 small
1 table spoon olive oil (optional)
sea salt
black pepper
paprika (optional)

To coat - more bread crumbs

Method
Peel or scrab potatoes and carrots, cut to 8 pieces.
Put in small pot, cover with cold water.
Boil for 10-15 minutes, until soft when pierced with fork.
Remove from the heat, pour out the liquid.
Mash the vegetables to puree using masher or fork. Although it is tempting to use food processor to achieve homogeneous mass, don't. Potatoes contain a lot of starch and using food processor will make them into thick glue.
Let cool.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix through.
In a shallow plate, put bread crumbs.
Prepare large baking sheet with parchment paper. Turn oven to 395F.
With a real table spoon, scoop chicken-potato-carrot mixture.
Form nugget and coat it in bread crumbs. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat till all the mixture is done.
Bake for 10 minutes in 395 F on each side, for total 20 minutes.
You might need to adjust the time according to nuggets size. Safe internal temperature for chicken is 165F. When in doubt, use cook thermometer.

Note
To pack for lunch, I have reheated the nuggets in toaster and packed them in thermoses. 3 nuggets for Mai, 5 nuggets for David. Zero came back. Success!

Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think.