How To Make Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice Casserole
You only need 10 minutes to prep this slow cooker chicken! It’s made with hearty spices, veggies, and rice, that’s all slow cooked to tender perfection.
Serves:
Ingredients
- 2lbschicken thighs,(or 1½ lbs), bone-in, skin on, boneless
- kosher salt
- 2tbspextra-virgin olive oil
- 4cupsyellow onion,(about 2 large onions), sliced to ¼-inch thick slices, sliced root to tip
- 1tspground cumin
- ¼tspground cinnamon
- 4tspgarlic,(about 4 cloves), finely chopped
- 2cupsbasmati long grain rice,raw
- 1cuptomatoes,diced, canned, or fresh
- ½cupfrozen peas,optional
- 1½cupschicken stock
- ¾tspblack pepper
- 2bay leaves
Instructions
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Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of salt on both sides of the chicken thighs, and let them sit.
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Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan on high heat. When the oil is shimmery hot, but not smoking, add the sliced onions and cook for about 6 minutes, until lightly browned, stirring frequently.
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Lower the heat to medium and stir in the ground cumin and cinnamon. Let cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic and cook for ½ minute more.
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Place the cooked onions and garlic into the bowl of a slow cooker.
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Heat the sauté pan on medium. Add the chicken thighs, skin-side-down in the pan.
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Let cook on medium heat for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the skin is well-browned and much of the chicken fat from the skin has rendered out. Turn the chicken pieces over and brown the skinless side for 4 to 5 minutes more.
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While the chicken is cooking, add the raw long-grain rice into the slow cooker with the onions, then stir to combine. Stir in the diced tomatoes, peas, stock, pepper, bay leaves. Stir in 1½ teaspoons of salt.
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When the chicken has finished browning, place the chicken pieces skin-side up in the pot.
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Slow cook for 2 to 3 hours on the High setting of the slow cooker. Check about halfway through the cooking time to see how the rice is cooking. If it is drying out, add another ½ cup of water.
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Fluff the rice with a fork, add more salt to taste, then serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- The basmati rice used in this recipe usually needs 3 cups of liquid for 2 cups of rice. For this recipe, only 1½ cups of liquid are added because the chicken and other ingredients will release moisture while the casserole cooks. If using rice that requires a different amount of liquid to cook, experiment for the right amount of liquid to reduce. Also, different slow cookers come to temperatures at different rates, and have tighter or looser lids. So it will likely need some experimentation with the timing as well as the amount of liquid. Some slow cookers may require adding more liquid to keep the rice from drying out.
- The timing depends on a particular slow cooker. Slow cooker models with a ceramic bowl heat up much more slowly and probably would take 3 hours to cook.
Nutrition
- Calories: 682.24kcal
- Fat: 31.06g
- Saturated Fat: 7.84g
- Trans Fat: 0.13g
- Monounsaturated Fat: 14.33g
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 6.04g
- Carbohydrates: 65.49g
- Fiber: 3.69g
- Sugar: 6.79g
- Protein: 33.10g
- Cholesterol: 149.97mg
- Sodium: 983.49mg
- Calcium: 70.63mg
- Potassium: 694.32mg
- Iron: 2.54mg
- Vitamin A: 58.26µg
- Vitamin C: 14.13mg
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