Easy Middle Eastern Chicken & Rice Bake
with Semi-Dried Tomatoes & Garlic Aioli
- Sulphites
- Milk
- Almond
- Eggs
- Wheat
- Gluten
- Soy
- May contain traces of allergens
- Milk
- Peanuts
- Sesame
- Traces of Tree Nuts
One of our favourite ways to flavour rice is by topping it with juicy, garlicky chicken thigh. Complete with sweet and tangy chargrilled capsicum and our creamy pesto to bring everything together, you can't go wrong with this recipe.
Ingredients
1
tomato
1 bag
green beans
1 packet
garlic paste
1 packet
basmati rice
(May be present: Wheat, Gluten, Soy)
1 packet
semi-dried tomatoes
(Contains: Sulphites)
1 sachet
vegetable stock powder
1 packet
chicken thigh
1 sachet
chermoula spice blend
(May be present: Soy)
1 packet
slivered almonds
(Contains: Almond May be present: Milk, Peanuts, Sesame, Soy, Tree Nuts)
1 packet
garlic aioli
(Contains: Eggs)
Not included in your delivery
olive oil
1.5 cup
boiling water
20 g
butter
(Contains: Milk)
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Preheat oven to 240°C/220°C fan-forced. Boil the kettle. • Roughly chop tomato. Trim and halve green beans. • In a large frying pan, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook tomato and green beans, tossing, until just tender, 3-4 minutes. Add garlic paste and cook until fragrant, 1 minute.
• To the veggie pan, stir in basmati rice, semi-dried tomatoes, vegetable stock powder and the boiling water (1 1/2 cups for 2 people / 3 cups for 4 people). Bring to the boil, then remove from heat. • Transfer the veggie-rice mixture to a baking dish. Cover with foil, then bake for 20 minutes. • Remove from oven and set aside to rest for 10 minutes, covered. • When the rice is ready, stir through the butter.
Little cooks: Under adult supervision, help stir the butter through the rice. Be careful, the dish is hot!
• When the rice has 15 minutes remaining, return frying pan to medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil. • Cook chicken thigh, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through (no longer pink inside), 10-14 minutes (cook in batches if your pan is getting crowded). • In the last 2-3 minutes, add chermoula spice blend and a splash of water, turning chicken to coat.
• Slice garlic chicken. • Divide rice bake between bowls. Top with chicken. • Dollop with garlic aioli and sprinkle with slivered almonds to serve. Enjoy!
Little cooks: Add the finishing touch by drizzling the aioli and sprinkling the almonds on top!
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on July 2026- Flavour: Most families found this dish full of flavour, with the chermoula chicken, garlic aioli, and slivered almonds working well together. Some found the rice a little mild; adding a squeeze of lemon or a pinch of chilli helped lift it.
- Ease of prep: This is a straightforward one-dish bake that most found simple and quick to pull together, though a few noted the overall prep takes a little longer than expected for a family serving.
- Suggestions: Several reviewers felt the semi-dried tomatoes were overpowering or had a strong pickled flavour; using about two-thirds of the packet or leaving them out entirely worked well. A few also added extra butter to the rice for more richness, and some swapped chicken thigh for breast to reduce fattiness.
- Leftovers: The dish reheated well, and at least one household found it easily stretched to serve five people with rice left over.
- Portions: A couple of reviewers noted the ratio of rice to chicken felt slightly uneven, and one suggested a larger garlic aioli sachet to keep the dish from feeling dry.
