Cooking with Jack No. 4 - Chicken and Rice recipe

By Jack Brummet

The Chicken 

Take a 3 1/2- 4 1/2  pound chicken, skin it, rinse off, and take off some of the yellow fat.  Place the chicken in a fairly deep pot, and add water or chicken stock to cover by one inch.). 

Add to the pot: 

• 1 diced carrot
• 1 diced celery stalk
• Three cloves of garlic, chopped
• one chopped onion
• salt and fresh ground pepper
• one or two bay leaves

Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, and simmer very slowly for about 50 minutes.  Take out the chicken and let it cool a bit so you can dismember it. Keep the stock for the rice, below.

After the chicken has cooked about 40 minutes, start the rice -- which is risotto style. 

The Rice

• 2 cups  Valencia, Arborio, or short grain rice
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 6+ cups of the stock from the chicken
• a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
• salt and fresh ground pepper
• a handful of sliced mushrooms (optional)

Heat a shallow pan or skillet.  Put one tbs.each olive oil and butter in a pan.  Add two or three cloves chopped garlic, and half a chopped onion.   Saute over medium heat two minutes. Add 2 cups rice. Let the rice cook for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time.  Add two cups of the hot chicken stock.  Let cook and stir.  Every few minutes add more chicken stock to the rice and cook it down. 

Dismember the chicken into 8 pieces..  Cut off the legs and cut into two--leaving a thigh and a drumstick.  Cut off the wings and then cut off the bony tips.  Take off the breasts and remove the meat.  Toss the carcass into the chicken stock (to make more stock for later).

Finish up the rice with a couple grinds of nutmeg and check the seasoning.  And it's done!

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