Chicken and Rice

Right then.  We might as well start at the top.

This is it, the cornerstone of my cuisine. The sine qua non of dinner, the ne plus ultra. So good, yet so utterly basic that it beggars belief.

Ingredients:

• Chicken thighs
• Rice (long grain or basmati)
• Hot sauce

Method:

Make some rice.  Make however much rice you think you'll need, but make sure all the water is cooked out.  Here's my foolproof method that I inherited from my mother that works every time:

• Decide how much rice you want, and double the amount of water ready to boil (fill a kettle, basically; or if you have a  fancy boiling tap, use that).
• Heat oil or butter in a saucepan on high heat - choose a pan with a lid that fits.
• Coat the rice in the hot butter and keep it moving so it doesn't burn.
• When the rice is coated, add the water (which is twice the volume of the rice).
• Stir, making sure that any rice that made its way up the sides of the pan is all incorporated.
• When the liquid starts bubbling again, put on the lid, which is wrapped with a cloth.
• Turn the heat down to the minimum possible - you may need to swap rings on your hob for this, but that's fine.
• Leave for fifteen minutes.  Once the fifteen minutes is up, turn the heat off.  Leave the lid on; it will stay hot for up to an hour this way.

This is for long grain and basmati.  Jasmine rice also works this way, but you might want to think of turning the heat off a few minutes before so it retains a little bit of water so it has that characteristic sticky texture.  If you want to season the rice with a touch of salt and pepper, then do so, and also consider cooking the rice in stock.  Whatever measurement you use for your rice, however arbitrary, make sure it's double of boiling liquid.  

Since the rice that way will stay hot for an hour, you can basically prepare it at any point.  Onwards.

• Roast the chicken.

Preheat your oven to maximum, and let that warm up for a while.  You don't want to put anything in a cold oven, do you?  Prepare a roasting pan with a little (and I mean just a splash) of oil, and place your chicken, and make sure both sides are covered.  Season with whatever you like on both sides - I use pinch pots of salt from the Cornish Sea Salt company (I currently have a smoked salt pot, but have had roasted garlic salt and salt with seaweed) and ground black pepper - but use whatever you want (consider Szechuan peppercorns).  When your oven is good and hot, make sure your thighs are skin side up and put the pan in mid to high position in the oven.  Leave at max for 5 minutes, and then turn down to 180c/350F/Gas mark 4.  Leave them unmolested for at least 40 minutes.  The meat will be cooked by then, but feel free to leave longer to crisp the skin (although the blast on full at the start will have helped this).  Remove the pan, and transfer the chicken to a plate to cut the meat off the bone.

• Mix the shredded and cut chicken with the rice, and add the hot sauce and serve.

My weapon of choice is Nando's, anything from medium to as hot as possible.  I prefer Nando's efforts as I find it doesn't have a vinegar bitterness to it, and as much as I enjoy the Extra Extra Hot and the Vusa (which are truly excellent), even the Medium is delicious.  Anyway, with everything together, it's ready to serve, so go ahead.

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That's it.  My favourite meal: low effort with high reward.  Some final tips:- 

The rice method is solid but may take some time to perfect with your own equipment.  I have a pan from University that's perfect for almost everything but is a little temperamental these days thanks to the literal millions of hours of use that's gone through it - I now cook more rice than I'll eat in one sitting which seems to help with the heat distribution and saves any burnt grains stuck to the bottom (avoid this at all costs), but it does mean I have rice for frying for the next couple days (more on that later).

The lack of amounts is deliberate.  Normally I'll eat two thighs with the equivalent of 100-150mls of rice as measured on a pyrex jug, but if you're making a big platter then just knock yourself out, you know, use a big roasting pan, massive rice pan (I've done rice for 8 no sweat like this before), and portion accordingly, but the timing is vital.  Also, thighs don't need too much in the way of oil because so much schmalz and juice comes out anyway.  If you want, throw some soy sauce over them before/while cooking.  Whatever you want to make them taste excellent.