One Pan Chicken and Rice
Chicken and rice is an easy, one pan recipe and this version shines with bright Mediterranean flavors. Juicy chicken thighs are soaked in a citrusy, lemon dijon marinade then baked with fluffy rice.
Nothing beats one pan dinners. They make dinner a breeze, yet they’re satisfying enough to eat as leftovers. Though count yourself lucky if you happen to have any leftovers of this delicious meal, it’s a rare feat.
Similar to my greek chicken kabobs, the zesty Mediterranean-inspired marinade bathes the chicken in lemon dijon goodness. But it also does double-duty in brightening up the rice. It’s the perfect cozy family meal that I’m confident you’ll make again and again.
Chicken and Rice Ingredients
Want to know what makes this recipe amazing, with such simple ingredients? It’s the layers of flavors!
Mediterranean Chicken Marinade
- Chicken: Bone in, skin on chicken thighs are the best choice for juicy, tender meat.
- Lemon: The citrus flavor makes you feel like you’re on a sunny vacation.
- Dijon Mustard: My secret ingredient for adding a sharp zip to the marinade.
- Garlic: You know my motto, the more garlic the better!
- Dried Oregano & Thyme: Mediterranean aromatics add that depth of flavor.
- Olive oil: Any good quality olive oil will work great.
Rice Ingredients
- Long Grain White Rice: Make sure to use long grain rice (check this rice post for tips).
- Chicken Stock: Choose a low or no-sodium stock to keep the salt level down.
- Baby Spinach: I always love to sneak in some extra greens, wherever possible.
- Onion: Yellow onion is preferred, but white onions work too.
- Dried Oregano: A sprinkle more to flavor the rice.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below
How to Make Mediterranean Chicken and Rice
By cooking everything in one skillet, the rice soaks up the juiciness from the chicken and the citrusy punch from the marinade. Here’s how to make it.
- Marinate the chicken: Whisk the marinade, pour over the chicken, and marinate in the fridge.
- Sear the chicken: In a large skillet, cook the chicken thighs on both sides until golden. Then remove from the pan and set aside.
- Cook the vegetables and herbs: Saute the onions, spinach, and garlic with oregano, salt, pepper, and the reserved marinade. Give everything a stir until the spinach is slightly wilted.
- Bake in the oven: Add the rice and broth to the skillet and bring it to a simmer. Place the chicken thighs on top, cover the skillet, and bake for about 35 minutes. Then, remove the lid and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Garnish and serve: Let the chicken rest, then garnish with parsley and lemon zest!
Tips For The Best Chicken And Rice Recipe
Use an oven-proof skillet. Make sure to use a cast iron or stainless steel skillet that can transfer from the stove to the oven.
Chicken thighs are best. While bone-in thighs are personally my favorite, you can also use boneless thighs. I don’t recommend chicken breasts in this recipe, as they’ll likely overcook and dry out by the time the rice is done. Chicken thighs stay juicy, and moist.
Keep on marinating. While you can get away with marinating the chicken for 30 minutes, longer is better! I always aim for at least a couple of hours.
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
This really makes for some of the best leftovers, and bonus, it freezes well.
- To store: You can store any leftover chicken and rice in the refrigerator in a covered container for 3-4 days.
- To freeze: Place leftovers in a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer up to 2 months.
- For reheating: Microwave the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes. If you want to crisp up the skin, run the chicken under a broiler for a couple of minutes. Just watch it carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn.
More Easy Chicken Recipes
Healthy, flavorful, and easy are what I aim for in a chicken recipe. If you love that too, check out these recipes.
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Baked Chicken Breasts
- Chicken Fajitas
- White Chicken Chili
- Teriyaki Chicken
- Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs
- Ultimate Chicken Salad
Want more of those Mediterranean flavors? Check out this list of the Best Mediterranean Recipes!
Chicken and Rice Recipe Video
Want to see how I make this one pan recipe (it’s easy, promise). Watch the video below!
BEST Chicken and Rice (One Pan)
Ingredients
Chicken
- 5 chicken thighs, skin-on and bone-in
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Marinade
- 2 lemons, juiced and zested (approx 1/4 cup of juice)
- 2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Rice
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cups baby spinach, lightly packed and roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- chopped parsley, for garnish
- lemon zest or slices, for garnish
Instructions
Marinate the Chicken
- Add all of the marinade ingredients to a bowl and stir together.
- Place chicken thighs in a glass dish, pour marinade over the chicken, and turn each piece to coat. Cover dish and marinate chicken in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
Cook the Chicken and Rice
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large ovenproof skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium-high heat. Add chicken thighs skin-side down and cook until skin is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Reserve the leftover marinade as you'll add that back in later.
- Flip the chicken and cook another 5 minutes. Remove chicken thighs from skillet and set aside.
- Use your tongs to scrape and remove any browned bits, and bunch up a couple of paper towels to soak up some fat from the pan, but not all. Reserve a little bit of grease to cook the onions.
- Add the diced onions and stir for 1-2 minutes, or until they start to become translucent.
- Add the chopped spinach, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and reserved marinade. Stir for another 30 seconds or until the spinach starts to wilt.
- Add the rice to the skillet, and stir well to coat the rice with the oil.
- Pour the chicken stock into the skillet and stir well. Bring this to a simmer on the stove.
- Arrange chicken thighs on top of the rice, then cover the skillet and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the lid, return the skillet to the oven, and bake until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender, about 10 minutes more.
- Let the chicken and rice rest for 5 to 10 minutes. The rice will look really dark as the spinach and onions rise to the surface. Just fluff the rice up with a fork to mix everything back together before serving.
- Top with chopped parsley and grilled lemon slices or fresh lemon zest.
Lisa's Tips
- To store: You can store any leftover chicken in the refrigerator in a covered container for 3-4 days.
- To freeze: Place leftovers in a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer up to 2 months.
- For reheating: Microwave the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes. If you want to crisp up the skin, run the chicken under a broiler for a couple of minutes. Just watch it carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn.
- One of my favorite oven-safe pans is this Staub braiser pan. It's so versatile and worth the investment!
This recipe is fantastic! I cooked ours in our dutch oven. The flavors are so fresh and the chicken turned out moist and juicy. Best of all, the leftovers were sensational.
I loved this dish it was so delicious. Would it work with boneless skinless thighs?.
You can, although just remember that they will cook much faster than bone-in thighs.
So glad I found this recipe! I don’t cook meat very often so I was nervous I’d mess it up or undercook it, but it’s a very easy recipe to follow. I used kale instead of spinach and added some broccoli and it turned out wonderfully. I think next time I’ll add even more mustard because I love the flavor and how it tastes with the lemon. After removing the chicken and removing some of the fat, I deglazed the pot with white wine which I think adds a nice brightness. I topped it with shredded parmesan which I recommend. I used my dutch oven and that worked perfectly. Thanks so much for sharing this, I’m so happy to have this in my rotation now, and to have a healthy tasty meal to look forward to for the rest of week :).
I love this recipe! I’ve used it multiple times, and have substituted the rice for couscous a few times which was a great alternative!
I love this recipe I’ve made it a few times! Tonight I tried it with boneless pork chops with season salt it’s really good! I add a ton of mushrooms.
This was a MAJOR hit! So flavorful and LOVE the texture of the rice. It was fairly quick and easy to put together – great for night when I am under tight work deadlines.
My husband has asked for this to be added to our dinner rotation. SO good!
This was a hit in our house! Yummy! Will definitely add this into my dinner rotation.
Made this today for the Hubs and our daughter and her friends. It was a HUGE success. It not only tastes delicious but it looks so darn pretty.
Glad this was a success Mary!
I love your recipes and I’m really excited for your cookbook. I’m planning on making this tonight for dinner and wanted to ask If i was cooking this in a 4.5qt pan does the cook time change?
It should cook about the same, but I would keep an eye on it to make sure everything gets cooked evenly.
This recipe stood out to me and I was excited to try it knowing that I had most of the ingredients on hand. I subbed short grain brown rice – that was delicious and nutty with the lemony marinade and the chicken flavor, just had to cook it covered for an extra 10 minutes or so with a 1/2 cup additional broth before removing the cover. I also subbed chopped kale for the spinach, and I think I like the kale better because it holds up so well to extended cooking! I also added some quartered baby bella mushrooms and that was excellent! I wouldn’t change a thing on this recipe.
I want to substitute brown rice for the white. What advice do you have in terms of cooking time and liquid volume?
If you use brown rice, you’ll need to increase the cooking time and add a bit more water.
So delicious and flavorful!
Does this dish keep if I have to cook ahead of time and bring to recuperating friend’s house an hour away?
It sure does!
This is a fantastic website, finally a cooking site that list recipes without giving me someone’s life story about how the recipe changed their soul or some BullSh*t like that.
Made this dish using boneless, skinless thighs, and doubled the recipe for a family dinner. It was a BIG hit – everyone gave it a strong thumbs up.
Thrilled to hear this was a dinner hit Joan!
Consistently delivering top notch recipes! Bettering the world through easy, tasty and healthy meals. So grateful for your contributions Lisa!
Hi, there!
I absolutely love this recipe. Since I tried for the first time, it has been a must in my house. Thank you!
Thrilled to hear this one pan recipe has become a favorite now :)
I’m making this now! Just a note— the instructions said to put the marinade to the side and that we’ll use it later, but I don’t see where I’m supposed to use it! When should we add it back in?
Hi Marion – you will add the marinade back into the pan on step 5 :)
I just made this and was so delicious!!!! I was excited to make it all day, and while it was cooking i said to my husband……can this possibly live up to my expectations! And it did!!! It was bursting with flavor! I’m on a food high…i can’t stop saying yum!!!!! I just discovered you and i will definitely be cooking more of your recipes…thank you!!!
Thrilled to hear you’re loving this one pan chicken and rice Ellyn!
I FINALLY made this recipe last night and it was delicious. It was so comforting and the flavors were wonderful. Can’t wait for the leftovers tonight.
I was eyeing your vegan chili recipe and think I’ll try that this weekend for football playoffs. Thank you Lisa.
Happy to hear you were finally able to make this one pan dish Suzy! And yes, the vegetarian chili will be perfect for Sunday football :)
This was great! The only substitution I made was that I used a bag of vegan grilled chicken strips for the chicken breasts. My husband loved it and I appreciated that the rice cooked in the pan.
Thank you so much this was a wonderful meal! I have just discovered your YouTube channel in the past week and have been devouring it. I appreciate your quality content.
I used brown long grain rice, cooking a little longer. With appreciation.
Welcome to the Downshiftology community Deb! Excited for you to cook your way through the website, and stay tuned for my cookbook coming out later this year :)
I made this for supper last night and it was delicious! My husband loved it. I absolutely love your recipes and thank you for all you do.
Glad both you and your husband enjoyed this chicken and rice :)