Broc’n chicken brown rice broth

Another one inspired by Pret a Manger…

There’s not much to say here - it does what it says on the tin. It’s super easy, pretty quick and a great way to use up leftover roast chicken. A different kinda ‘soup’ to have in your locker.. a bowl of delicious goodness.

For the chicken, it’s not an exact science.. half a roast chicken? a few leftover thighs and legs? Whatever you fancy. The shredding of the chicken is the only real bit of effort, but well worth it.

Sometimes when I’m chopping the broccoli I like to play Biggie Smalls and shout “WHERE THE GOODNESS AT?! WHERE THE GOODNESS AT?!” over and over. But hey, that’s just me.

(…it’s in the stalk)

Serves: Family of 4

Prep time: 10-15 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients

Leftover/cooked/roast chicken (I use a couple of legs and a couple of thighs worth)

1 whole broccoli (cut into small florets)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)

250g pre-cooked wholegrain rice

500ml good chicken stock

500ml boiling water

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp butter

A crumbling of stilton to serve (optional)

Method

The only real bit of effort with this dish is shredding your roast chicken. There’s no fancy trick here - just dive straight into the messiness and start pulling at it with your fingers until you have a bowl full of pulled chicken.

Add the butter to a large pan over a medium heat. Once it’s melted and foaming, add the broccoli and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your pulled chicken to the pan and sprinkle the flour evenly over everything before giving it a good stir. After one minute, add the stock and water, turn the heat down to the lowest possible, add a pinch of salt and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the rice, give it a good stir and leave it to cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Season to taste before serving with a crumbling of blue stilton and black pepper.

TIPS

  • Too much time and mess to chop up the broccoli?.. buy a bag of florets instead and enjoy less prep!

  • I don’t often promote supermarket products, but rotisserie chicken (freshly roasted at the deli section) is always great.

  • Doubling down on the supermarket promos… get yourself a bag/packet of cooked rice from the shelves. You won’t need to do anything other than pour it straight into the pot for the last 10 minutes. It turns this dish into one of the easiest weeknight meals you can imagine.