Oriental One-Pot Chicken

A complete Chinese-style chicken and rice dinner cooked in one large skillet. The chicken marinates overnight in soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, then gets browned and built up with rice, peppers, and onions in stages. Snow peas and water chestnuts go in last so they keep their snap.

The overnight marinade is the heart of this dish. Six hours minimum, but a full overnight is better. The salt and acid penetrate the chicken meat, so by the time it hits the pan, the seasoning has gone all the way through rather than sitting on the surface.

Reserving the marinade and adding it back into the pot after the chicken browns is an old technique that wastes nothing. The marinade carries garlic, ginger, and sesame flavor that would otherwise get washed down the drain. Boiling the marinade with the rice fully cooks any raw chicken juices and infuses the grains with everything you’ve already paid for.

Pro Tips

• Brown the chicken in batches if needed. Crowding the skillet steams instead of searing
• Use long-grain white rice. Short-grain stays gummy in this kind of one-pot cook
• Add the snow peas and water chestnuts only in the last 5 minutes to keep their crunch
• Resist stirring constantly during the rice cook. Lift and turn once when the recipe calls for it, then leave it alone

Variations

• Use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of frying chicken pieces for richer flavor
• Stir in a half cup of sliced shiitake or cremini mushrooms with the bell peppers
• Top each serving with toasted sesame seeds and sliced scallions for presentation