Crispy chicken bakes over a bed of tomato basil rice in this One Pan Tomato Basil Chicken & Rice. Dinner is ready in 45 minutes!
All made in one pan and so easy to prepare, you won’t believe it when it’s done. No rice cookers and no extra pans needed! Tomato Basil Chicken & Rice has the most popular vote for dinner in my house!
Chicken and Rice
Back up a second. Let me rephrase. Chicken SO crispy on the outside; tender and falling apart on the inside; tomato, basil rice with so much flavour and cooked in so.much.sauce. Chicken broth, tomato juices and chicken flavours, mixed through with chopped tomatoes, fresh basil leaves AND the addition of sun dried tomatoes if you so desire.
- Easy ✔
- Delicious ✔
- One-pan ✔
CHECK.
One Pan Recipe
This Italian inspired recipe comes from this One Pot Italian Chicken and Rice recipe from so long ago. An even BETTER version times a thousand! I have no doubt in my mind you will fall in love with THIS ONE.
How To Make One Pan Tomato Basil Chicken And Rice
- This recipe calls for a skillet, but if you don’t own one you can a normal pan to sear your chicken in over stove top, add the rice and the rest of the ingredients, then transfer everything to a large 9×13-inch baking dish.
- You can use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts if you don’t like thighs.
- The recipe is the perfect rice to liquid ratio when using white rice. If using brown rice, you will certainly need up your liquid. I have not tried this recipe with brown rice, so I cannot give you any advice.
Chicken thighs are crisp-tender and juicy, cooked WITH the rice in one pan to minimise cleanup! You are SO welcome!
More One Pan Recipes!
Honey Mustard Chicken & Potatoes (One Pan)
One Pan Spanish Chicken and Rice
Oven Baked Chicken Rice
One Pan Tomato Basil Chicken & Rice on VIDEO!
One Pan Tomato Basil Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs skin on, bone in
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper deseeded and chopped
- ⅓ cup sun dried tomato strips in oil chopped, optional: but adds flavour
- 1 ⅓ cup long grain rice uncooked, rinsed (arborio rice may also be used for a risotto-like consistency)
- 14.5 ounce crushed tomatoes with liquid
- 1 ¾ cups chicken broth or chicken stock
- 1-2 teaspoons salt adjust to your taste
- ½ teaspoon pepper adjust to your taste
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves chopped
- 1 pinch fresh basil extra chopped, to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°c | 400°F. Heat the oil in a large, deep ovenproof cast iron skillet/or pan (over 30 cm or 12-inches). Add the chicken, skin side down; sear for 3-4 mins on medium-high heat. Turn each thigh and sear until golden all over. Transfer the chicken onto a warm plate.
- Add the garlic; fry until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add the onion and red peppers / capsicum; fry for about 3 minutes or until and onion is transparent. Stir in the sun dried tomatoes, rice, crushed tomatoes and chicken broth (stock). Season with salt, pepper and dried basil. Bring to a simmer and allow the rice to soak up all the tomato flavours.
- Place chicken thighs, skin side up, over rice. Bring to the boil; rotate the chicken in the tomato sauce to coat; cover with foil; transfer to preheated oven and allow to bake for about 40 minutes, or until the rice has softened and absorbed the liquid and the chicken is cooked through. Stir through an extra ¼ cup of water to the rice ONLY if needed (if rice hasn't cooked fully).
- Remove cover; change oven settings to broil / grill on medium heat for a further 8-10 minutes or until the chicken is crispy and golden.
- Season with extra salt to taste; sprinkle with freshly chopped basil to serve.
Silindile says
Easy and oh so delicious. Thank you very much for the recipe. I passed it on to a friend and she really enjoyed it as well.
Marie says
A family favourite. The only one thing I will omit next time if the browning of the skin. I can’t for the life of me brown the skin. It sticks to the pan. Other than that the rice is amazing
Dan Larsson says
Thanks for a great recipe! I made this today. So delicous! Since i hade celery and mushrooms i added them to the other vegetables. Some grated parmesan on the top made this dish a complete success!
Greetings from Sweden!
Darlene says
Karina, thank you sooo much for sharing this recipe. I’m grateful I found you on Pinterest and signed up for your newsletter. I made this recipe exactly as you printed it and it is perfect!!! The combination of ingredients and liquid to rice ration are PERFECT!! I brought leftovers in for my co-workers to try and they liked it as much as I and requested the recipe. Looking forward to trying more of your creations. Thank you, again. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Karina says
Hi Darlene!!
Thank you so much for the kind words and for the comment! I am happy that you love it and that you shared it with your co-workers. It is one of my favorite recipes. Thanks for following along with me! xo
Lynn says
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Used boneless, skinless thighs and had no fresh basil but everyone loved it!
Karina says
Lynn!!
I am so glad that you all loved this meal! This is one of my very favorites. Thanks for taking time to comment and for following along with me!
xo
Sue Deveau says
Found this recipe when I googled thighs, rice, and stewed tomatoes, trying to find something for dinner. Only had dry basil, and no sun dried tomatoes, but it still came out great for an easy family dinner. I now make it once or twice a month. I wouldn’t hesitate to serve this for a casual dinner party, either.
Tamara says
Amazing, dropped the basil for turmeric and a touch of cumin, parsley for cilantro. Long grain for basmati rice. And fresh coriander to top it off. Great lunch meal with family. Thank you dear:)
Manjela says
This was very nice. Reminded me of something my grandmother used to make when I was little. An absolute keeper.
Jennifer Welding says
Holy smokes is this good. I needed to make for five with three teenagers so kind of doubled it. Don’t have a skillet big enough so I used a non-stick roasting pan on the stove with three burners going to get the chicken seared and it.was.perfect. we added a bit of saffron right before the broil and it was over the top! Can’t wait to make this again to impress someone. Yummy!
DREW says
Did a variation of this tonight, except I used boneless, skinless chicken that had been soaked in brine for a couple of hours beforehand. I also had the rice start out dry in the bottom of a glass casserole dish and covered it and the chicken with the liquid tomato mixture, so it did need two pans (mostly out of necessity, I don’t own an oven-suitable frying pan).
It earned the German mum-in-law seal of approval, which comes down to her saying “terrible, must be destroyed,” and making short work of it, plus going back for seconds, so I think I’ll be making this again very soon!
Karina says
That is awesome to hear! I am so glad that it was approved and that you made it your own! Thanks so much for sharing!