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This is an epic chicken and rice recipe that comes together in a single dutch oven. An invaluable method inspired by my friends over at Bon Appétit.
One-pot chicken & cilantro lime rice is as simple as it sounds. Pan-seared chicken thighs that are cooked in a dutch oven right within the rice as it simmers/steams. The rice is finished with a spritz of fresh lime juice and lots of freshly chopped cilantro.
Prefer white meat? Then nestle chicken breasts with butternut squash for a true delight. If you love making meals entirely in your cast iron skillet as I do, then go for baked gnocchi bolognese or a cheesy baked summer squash.
Table of Contents
Crispy Golden Chicken Thighs
The chicken thighs in this recipe are seared generously right in the dutch oven with oil before cooking with the rice. This, of course, helps to cook the chicken and brown the skin so it’s crispy and golden. I keep the seasoning really simple with just salt and pepper, however, you could season with a little cumin as well.
Preventing Your Dutch Oven From Sticking
My most important advice for this recipe is to use plenty of cooking oil (2-3 tablespoons) and always start with a cold dutch oven when searing the chicken. This is to prevent the chicken’s skin from burning onto the bottom of your dutch oven and getting stuck. Although the dutch oven is enameled, it is not the most non-stick friendly surface.
Preheating the dutch oven before adding the chicken will overheat the pan and risk scorching. Thanks to the pot’s excellent heat-retaining qualities, the pan can easily overheat. This step is so important because there is nothing worse than losing that delicious crispy skin on your chicken thighs.
Cilantro Lime Rice
Cilantro lime rice is a simple and flavorful way to prepare jasmine rice or your basic white rice. Seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed with fresh lime juice and plenty of finely chopped cilantro. My only tip would be to add the lime and cilantro just before serving in contrast to cooking the rice with the cilantro and lime. This helps with freshness and max flavor.
Do I Need A Dutch Oven?
This recipe is so easy to make thanks to the dutch oven’s searing and simmering capabilities. If you have a similar lidded pan that is meant for searing/baking/simmering, that should work okay too. However, I’ve never tried with another style pot and highly recommend a dutch oven.
More Chicken Recipes
- Cilantro lime chicken thighs
- Easy roasted chicken thighs
- Honey garlic chicken thighs
- Roasted chicken and butternut squash
- Grilled honey sriracha chicken thighs
More Chicken Recipes You’ll Love
Enjoy this recipe? If you made this recipe, please leave a ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ star rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments!
One-Pot Chicken & Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 4-6 medium skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 3 cups of water
- 2 cups jasmine or basmati rice, rinsed
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 limes, juice squeezed
- 1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 2-3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pat chicken dry and season liberally all over with salt and pepper. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil to a cold dutch oven. Swirl to coat the bottom of the pot. Arrange chicken, skin side down, and turn to medium heat.
- Cook chicken, undisturbed, until the skin is golden and easily releases from the pot, about 8-10 minutes. Flip thighs and cook 3-5 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to a plate and remove pot from the heat for 2-3 minutes to cool. If there is a lot of excess juice and oil in the pot, you can discard some if you’d like. Leave a little behind for flavor.
- Return dutch oven to the heat and turn to low. Melt butter and then add garlic, simmering for 1 minute. Add rice and stir to coat in butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- And 3 cups of water and mix. Nestle chicken back into the rice mixture skin side up. Increase heat to medium and bring liquid to a simmer. As soon as it bubbles, cover pot, reduce heat to low, and cook for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let chicken and rice sit for 10 minutes with the lid on.
- Remove chicken from the pot and add lime juice and cilantro. Mix well with a fork and serve with chicken.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love this recipe! I probably make it once a month. The lime and cilantro make the rice so flavorful. I use a cast iron Dutch oven and I have never had a problem with the chicken skin sticking.
I think this recipe is excellent, yes the skin did stick. I can usually get most pieces stuck off without issue, rice is perfect nit overly flavored just clean flavor as it should be, the chicken seasoning and prep I changed a bit and added some of my own spices which would still pair well with rice. Cooking is all about taking a recipe that inspires or looks good and tweaking it to make it your own and fit your taste.
I agree with some of the comments above. Overall, it came out pretty bland and flavorless. I did add about a lime and a half, more salt and Italian seasoning to get it closer to my liking.
Started with 4 skin on chicken thighs and a dream. ended with 3/4 skinless (one skin made it) bland thighs and some very mediocre rice. Overall very disappointed. I’d be shocked if anyone could make this as the recipe states and have the skin make it through the cooking process. I essentially had to clean my dutch oven after the chicken cooking phase as there was rock hard chicken skin covering the entirety of the bottom. It’s edible, but not worth it IMO
I followed to a T the whole recipe, and it came out amazing. The chicken sticking was an issue but I used a super thin spatula and slowly worked it underneath until it came loose and I didn’t lose any skin luckily. The rice with the lime and cilantro at the end is incredible.
This had 1% flavour unfortunately. Maybe okay for a toddler but needs a lot more ingredients to give it any taste.
Followed the recipe word for word and it turned out wonderfully. Full of flavour and the chicken stayed nice and crisp.
The skin stuck to the bottom even with starting cold and a lot of the rice came out uncooked. Hard pass on this recipe!
I used 3 overflowing tbsp of oil, cold Dutch oven, it still stuck. I had to scrape the beautifully Golden skin of the bottom of the pot. Then when I added the water there was no “nestling” the chicken back into the pot… It just submerged into the water. It’s still coming so I can’t speak to taste but essentially I’m now boiling chicken and have mixed Golden chicken skin in with the mixture…. Hmmmm boiled chicken.
I just submerged my chicken 😢😂. Hoping this turns out. The picture made my mouth water!