Pickle rice topped with honey-mustard glazed chicken
Pickle rice. It’s a damn good thing. Hear me out! Your humble jar of pickles can totally transform a rice salad - adding a distinctive twang of sweet, sour and salty bursts of surprise with each bite. Seriously good. You’ve got to try it!
Tossed with plenty of herbs, avocado, lemon and a good olive oil, this salad can be made with any kind of grain you might have on hand. I’ve then gone and topped it with succulent pieces of honey-mustard glazed roast chicken.
Ingredients
For the chicken:
1 whole free-range chicken (mine was butterflied)
3 onions, roughly chopped into quarters
2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 heaped tbsp honey
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
For the rice salad:
1 cup basmati rice
A large handful fresh parsley, roughly sliced
1 cup pickles, roughly sliced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 just-ripe avocados
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Arrange the chicken and wedges of onion in a large roasting dish, then pour over the stock.
In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, honey and extra-virgin olive oil. Rub all over the chicken, then season with sea salt and cracked pepper.
Roast the chicken in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, you can make the rice salad.
Add 1 cup of rice to a saucepan along with 2 cups of water. Simmer over medium-low heat, until almost all of the liquid is absorbed and the rice cooked.
Transfer the rice to a colander, and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process, then drain well.
Toss the rice with the remaining ingredients, and season with with sea salt and cracked pepper.
Pile the rice onto a large serving dish, then top with the chicken. Serve with a few wedges of lemon, some yummy aioli for dolloping and a scattering of fresh herbs if you like.
Oh, and don’t forget the caramelised onions from the chicken pan - wham them into a bowl and spoon onto your plate along with the other ingredients!
