This lemon turmeric chicken is a great one-pot meal that looks beautiful and takes minimal effort. Also, our kids are obsessed with the rice.
I love a good one-pot chicken & rice dish. Two primary reasons: easy to cook and the rice. When you cook chicken thighs over rice, you end up with the most comforting, chewy, crunchy rice. I’ve also added caramelized onions for sweetness, turmeric for its earthy bitterness and bright yellow color, olives for a nutty richness, and currants for little pops of sweetness. Plus the lemon of course, which brightens up all the flavors in a very flavorful dish.
This lemon turmeric chicken is also one of those dishes you need to pay attention to for about 20 minutes, and then you just leave it alone for 30 minutes to cook.
Vegetable Compatibility
I cook this lemon turmeric chicken on the stovetop, which leaves the oven free to make quick vegetables. I’ll often make some roasted asparagus about ten minutes out from dinner (while the chicken is resting). Or sometimes I’m feeling more in a roasted eggplant sort of mood. Or popcorn cauliflower (current kid favorite, except for maybe sweet potatoes). That said, if you needed the stovetop, you could finish it off in the oven (30 minutes at 400F rather than 30 minutes on the stove over low heat).
Kids
There’s something about bright yellow rice that makes this dish particularly appealing to our kids. That’s one of the reasons I add the turmeric here. Bright yellow rice = exciting! But they also love this rice just because it tastes deliciously like chicken. They are even more willing to try the currants and the olives that are mixed in!
My daughter is willing to eat the olives and says she likes them – my older son remains skeptical about giving them a try. The baby likes the rice and the currants – olives are still a bit big for him. Right now he mostly just enjoys tossing them to the dogs. Not ideal, but we will keep trying.
It also makes enough that we usually have some leftovers which are great to pack in a lunch for the next day.
On to the recipe!
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Lemon Turmeric Chicken Over Rice (with Olives & Currants)
This lemon turmeric chicken is a great one-pot meal that looks beautiful and takes only a bit of effort. About 20 minutes of active time, and the rest of the time it’s either cooking or resting (all by itself). Also, our kids are obsessed with the rice.
- Total Time: 1 hour (including rest time)
Ingredients
One-Pot Chicken
8 chicken thighs, bone-in, with skin
4 tsp fresh oregano
2 lemons
1 yellow onion
1 cup kalamata olives
6 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp currants
1 1/2 cup basmati rice
2 1/4 cups chicken stock
Yogurt Sauce
1/4 cup fresh dill
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
1. Prep the chicken thighs.
Sprinkle 1 tsp salt over the tops (skin-side up) of your 8 chicken thighs. Sprinkle 2 tsp oregano (this is half of the oregano in this recipe) over the tops of the chicken thighs (skin side up)0. I usually don’t bother to chop up the leaves – I just sprinkle them whole.
2. Brown the chicken thighs.
Preheat a large sauté pan with at least a 6 quart capacity (not something nonstick) or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Spray it down with olive oil and let the oil heat up a bit. Preheating until the oil is hot keeps the chicken from sticking.
Then plop in the chicken thighs, skin-down. Cook the skin side over medium high heat until the skin is browned. Usually takes me 6-9 minutes, but definitely start checking on the thighs for brownness around 5 minutes.
FYI – we’re only browning the skin side here. So once the skins are brown, we are going to take them out of the pan and set them aside for few minutes.
3. While the chicken is browning . . . add more salt and prepare the lemons.
While the chicken is cooking, sprinkle the bottoms of the thighs with another 1 tsp of salt.
Slice 1 lemon into very thin slices (about 1/8 in thick).
Slice 1 yellow onion into very thin slices – the thinner, the better.
Once the chicken has browned on the skin side, remove the thighs from the pan and set them aside. Turn the heat down to low.
4. Caramelize the lemon.
Plop the lemon slices down into the chicken fat and let them cook over very low heat (they should gently sizzle) for about 1-2 minute on each side. Then remove them from the pan and set them aside.
5. Caramelize the onion.
Now add the onion to the pan and turn the heat back up to medium. Let the onions cook in the lemony chicken fat about 6 minutes, stirring intermittently, until they are gently browned.
6. Put everything together.
To the caramelized onions, now add:
- 6 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped
- 1 cup kalamata olives
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
Let it all cook together in the pan for about 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Then add:
- 3 tbsp currants
- 4 tsp fresh oregano
- 1 1/2 cup basmati rice
- 2 1/4 cups chicken stock
Stir well until all mixed together. Add the chicken thighs, skin-side up on top, lightly pressing them down into the rice. Place a slice of caramelized lemon on top of each chicken thigh. Don’t forget this step!! It will affect whether the chicken picks up lemon flavor.
7. Bring to a boil, cover, then cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
(FYI – Alternatively, you can put it in the oven at 400F for 30 minutes if you’ve used an oven-safe pan. I prefer the stovetop because you’re more likely to get some crunchy rice at the bottom of the pan this way.)
8. Prepare yogurt sauce.
While the chicken and rice cook, wash and chop the 1/4 cup of fresh dill. Mix together with 1 cup of Greek yogurt and 1 tbsp of olive oil.
9. Let the chicken rest a bit.
Once chicken has finished cooking, I typically lift up the lid and place a clean towel over the pan, then place the lid back in place. The towel will help absorb the excess steam so that the rice doesn’t get soggy. Let it sit this way for 10 minutes. (If you’re in a hurry, you can skip this step – you’re just going to have some very hot rice so be careful.)
Right before serving, squeeze the remaining lemon all over the rice and chicken. Serve with the yogurt sauce.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: stovetop
