Brown Rice Chicken Salad

5 from 1 vote

Filling from the brown rice and those lovely vegetables, it's less than 500 calories too! Inexpensive as well to help those purses and wallets.

Prep Time10

Cook Time35

Total Time45

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: English

Diet: Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Low Fat, Dairy Free

Servings:

Calories: 493kcal

Author: Thrifty Lesley

Cost: 43p

First of all, cook the brown rice. I like to use the absorption method when cooking rice with flavourings. You will need twice as much stock, by weight, as rice. Cover the rice with stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer gently for 20-25 minutes. keep an eye on it for the last 5 or 10 minutes as you may need to add a spoonful or 2 more of stock. Switch the heat off and leave the pan on the hob for a further 10 minutes to soak up any remaining stock and finish cooking
240 g brown rice

While all that is happening, prepare everything else Chop the chicken up small. This is a series using already cooked chicken. If you don't have any, use a little more of chicken that's still raw. Chop it up small and fry off in a pan until cooked through. Tip into a mixing bowl.
140 g cooked chicken, 240 ml chicken stock
I use roasted red peppers from a jar which just need to be chopped and added to the bowl. You could use raw peppers, chopped small. Or chop one up small and cook it through in a frying pan with a little oil
120 g red pepper
Add the raisins
100 g raisins
Add the salted peanuts
60 g salted peanuts
Chop a couple of frozen mushrooms that have been thawed, or a couple of fresh ones and add to the bowl
80 g mushrooms
Chop up a couple of gherkins, or several of the tiddly ones and add to the bowl
60 g gherkins
Add the frozen peas. There is no need to cook them through, just add them straight from the freezer, they'll thaw in no time.
Once the brown rice is cooked through, let it cool a little and add to the bowl with everything else
Check the seasoning, correct if necessary.
Give it all good stir and serve, or pop in the fridge for later

What changes can I make

Change the rice to barley - lovely, malty, chewy grains, and very inexpensive. Or try quinoa or couscous.
If you prefer the taste or texture of fresh peppers, by all means use those. Any colour is fine. You could use a fresh pepper either cooked or raw, but do chop it up small.
I like raisins in a salad for a little hit of sweetness, but any dried fruit would work just fine. Make sure any larger dried fruit, apricots for instance, are cut up small.
If you don't like gherkins, leave them out, but a strong flavour like that is good in a rice salad. So you could use something like olives or capers instead
I like the salty hit of a salted peanut, but any nut can be substituted, whatever you have. For a bit of extra flavour, you could try toasting them first, and even tossing them with a little olive oil and brown sugar and salt.
The mushrooms add umami. If you don't like them, just leave them out
Add a little sweet chilli or Hoisin sauce, or my favourite Patak's aubergine pickle
In fact all the ingredients can be changed around, substituted, omitted and swapped. What have you got?

This recipe is from a series - how to poach a chicken and feed your family all week with it

How To Poach A Chicken
Spaghetti with olives, sultanas and lemon 140g chicken
Oaty, nutty, seedy chicken and mushroom crumble 140g chicken
Chicken and rice salad – red peppers from a jar, peas, gherkins, raisins 140g chicken and some of the stock, this recipe
Chicken and something Pizza, sweetcorn, onion, red pepper, mozzarella and cheddar – 140g chicken
Coronation Chicken Jacket Potato – 140g chicken
Red Cabbage Waldorf with apple, walnut and dressing – 140g chicken
Chicken Tart with Butternut Squash, Lemon Zest & Parmesan 140g chicken

Adjusting the recipes to accommodate 977g chicken, each making 4 servings, I was able to stretch it to do the following:-

Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables butter and parmesan, 4 portions
Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
Spicy Pasta Bake, white sauce, 120g chicken, onion, spices, stuffing, 4 portions
Tart, 100g chicken, onions, sweetcorn, couple of eggs, no cheese, stuffing, 4 portions
Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
Soup with the remaining half of the stock, red lentils, onion, spices, 4 portions

this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which I think is pretty good!

This means that 1 medium chicken can be used to make 7 different budget stretching chicken recipes and feed your family for a week – bargaintastic!