Dinner Is Ready: Chicken With Fennel, Eggplant, and Turmeric-scented Rice

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Rice, chicken, and seasonal vegetables is a classic combination for a delicious dinner—any time of year. Our community member Sophie is showing us how to spice up this simple dish for fall by adding turmeric, soy sauce, and Parmesan cheese. The yellowy orange turmeric is her special ingredient and is known for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and digestive effects (and of course for its vibrant color). This turns the rice into a real eye-catcher on the plate next to savory stewed fennel and chicken.

45 min

1.8k

Chicken with fennel, eggplant, and turmeric-scented rice

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Why we love this recipe

There are many reasons why rice plays a big role in cuisines all over the world—being incredibly versatile it tastes great on its own, but can also be refined with spices, herbs, and can even be cooked with coconut milk or broth instead of water. In this recipe, the boiled rice is first fried in the pan and then mixed with heavy cream, turmeric, and Parmesan cheese. This combination seems unusual at first sight, but proves to be harmonious! Turmeric provides an earthy taste to the creamy rice while salty Parmesan cheese almost always gets along with stewed vegetables.

3 tips and tricks for this recipe

1. Don't skip the fennel

Fennel can be a divisive vegetable with it's strong anise flavor, but it's an impressively healthy and versatile bulb and very comforting in the colder seasons. Plus, when fennel is stewed or braised, it becomes quite mild in taste.

2. Flour the chicken breast

Everybody likes fried chicken, but nobody likes dry fried chicken. To get that crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside chicken you crave, it's important not to sear this tender meat over high heat. To get the perfect crispy outside, we recommend mixing 2 — 3 tablespoons of flour with half a teaspoon of each salt and pepper and then dredge the chicken breast with this mixture before frying it.

3. Precook the rice

Cooking rice when you're hungry can feel like watching paint dry (but much worse because, hey, you're hungry), so here's a simple trick: precook rice the day before. This way you only need to heat it up with all the remaining ingredients. Yes, this might take planning ahead, but it will save you in the end.

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