Recreating NYC’s Best Chicken Over Rice

Chicken and rice is one of my favorite recipes to make at the moment , and I feel like I’ve finally nailed it.

Here is the recipe that serves 4-6 people

3 lbs Chicken thighs
2 tbsp oil
1/4 cup hot pepper paste
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp yogurt
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 packet sazon (option)
Salt to taste

Rice:
2 cups basmati Della rice
3 cups water
2 tbsp ghee
2 tbsp hot pepper paste
1 packet sazon
1/2 tsp chili powder, paprika, oregano
Chicken bouillon / salt to taste

White sauce:
2 parts sour cream (1 cup)
2 parts mayo (1 cup)
1 part yogurt (1/2 cup)
1 tsp bouillon, oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon, juiced
Salt to taste
MSG optional

Imagine a pile of spicy, fluffy rice topped with some juicy marinated grilled chicken. Sauce that boy up with a bunch of white sauce and then you’ll have the best homemade chicken over rice, New York style. A few months ago, I went around New York City eating all versions of chicken over rice. In today’s video, we’re making the best chicken over rice, New York style. So, let’s get started. The first thing we’re going to do is start with the marinade for the chicken. Beautiful large bowl. I’m just going to drizzle in lots of good olive oil. Don’t go too much. I do have a lot of chicken, so I am getting pretty generous here. But, you just want it to glaze every single piece a little bit. What I really like is this hot pepper paste. This is definitely my secret ingredient. It adds so much umami and depth of flavor. So, I’m just going to grab a nice spoonful of it. If you don’t have access to this hot pepper paste, you can easily do tomato paste. So, I’m going to just give this a quick mash. It’s a little bit of a thicker paste. The next major, you know, flavor component is some fresh heartburn. I already peeled these. I’m going to set them to the side. Just give these a nice dice. And if you have a garlic press, this is the time it shines. Or use the garlic paste if you want. The last thing I’m going to do is I’m going to actually hit the garlic with a little bit of salt. Once I got a nice mince on the heartburn, I’m going to grab it on my knife and I’m just going to slide it into the marinade. You don’t want to be biting into chunks of garlic, but texturally you want it to kind of, you know, melt within the uh marinade. Next on the list, I’m going to throw in a little bit of full fat yogurt, not Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is not the vibe. And again, I’m pretty sure a lot of those chicken marinades that you see in those classic chicken and rice spots have some yogurt in them. And if you’re not marinating your chicken with yogurt, you’re definitely missing out. So, I’m just going to go in with like two full spoonfuls. Not too much because this will become pasty. So, be careful. You just want it to lightly coat it and absorb it in. Next, I’m just going to squeeze in lots of lemon juice without the seeds hopefully. So, I’m going to mix this up. The beautiful color of the hot pepper paste with the yogurt. And then there’s that garlic running through every single bite. This is going to be an amazing marinade. And the longer it sits in the fridge, the better it’s going to come out. To balance out this beautiful marinade, I’m going to go in with some light drizzle of honey. Now, our seasoning is going to be super simple cuz we have so much flavor in here already. I’m just going to add a little bit of chipotle chili powder. This is going to add some nice smokiness to the flavor. Some smoked paprika as well. And then I’m going to go with a very, you know, classic New York uh seasoning, which is oregano. You got to do a Pekka Sona. Sona is like very popular in New York, especially in all those bodeas, the chopped cheeses, and chicken over rices. We’re going to mix that up. I always like to say if you put this marinade on a flip-flop, it’ll taste good. to properly and accurately season and salt your food. I like to salt the the meat directly. So, I’m just going to go really light on the salt and then we’re going to add it to the marinade. Mix it all together. So, that already has salt in it because of the hot pepper paste and the sone. And that’s how you always accurately and properly season your food without oversing it. If your food is, you know, not salted well, you could just throw some on at the end. So, here we are. I’m going to add my chicken to the marinade. A very lightly, you know, salted chicken. Whenever I mix a marinade, I always like to use my hands. I just get in there, lightly fold, and you’re going to see how that marinade is going to coat every single piece of chicken. We’re going to marinate this until we lose patience. I always like to say that, but I mean it. And I would recommend at least giving it an hour or two just to like penetrate it within the chicken. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to cover this. I’m going to throw it in the fridge. Our chicken is vibing out. Our next order of operation is to make our beautiful rice. A lot of places use a best mati sala rice. We’re going to do two cups of rice only. So, now what we’re going to do is we’re going to step over and actually wash our rice. Run your water on cold. Cover your rice just like this. You’re going to kind of agitate the rice just a little bit. We’re going to wash off the starch inside the bowl. Just rub it. Now, our water is very, very murky. It’s full of starch. And actually step over and just dump it out. You want to do that like three to five times. When the water kind of, you know, starts running clear uh like this, it’s good. Now, to cook our beautiful rice, I’m using this 3 quart uh non-stick pan. And we’re going to put it You actually need to have a lid just like that. So, what we’re going to do, we’re going to turn on the heat. And because it’s non-stick, you don’t want to get it too hot. And as this warms up, if you’re not cooking your rice with ghee, you are tremendously missing out. I usually like to do one tablespoon per one cup of rice. As this kind of starts melting, drop the heat to a medium high. Now, remember the hot pepper paste we added with the marinade? We’re going to take the rest of that and we’re going to add it to our ghee. Add it on early or it will splatter and talk back and splash and pop everywhere. Going to press it into the ghee just like that so it kind of melts through. To complete our, you know, MSG for the day, we’re going to go in with more sone. If you are weird and you don’t want to add sone, don’t. Just add a little bit more salt. We get a little bit more spices just like the ones earlier. A little chipotle chili powder, a little paprika, and a little oregano. So, our next secret ingredient is actually going to be some chicken buan. Again, the in here already has salt and hot pepper paste, so go light on this. But this adds a really nice, you know, flavor to the rice in my humble opinion. Now, now that our ghee is infused with that beautiful smelling hot pepper paste and all those spices, you’re going to add the rice just like this. Going to slide it in and we’re going to kind of toast the rice. Let it talk back to us, too. What I usually like to advise is to follow the cooking package instructions, but I don’t like what they got on here. So, what I usually do is I got two cups of rice in here. I’m going to go a cup and a half of liquid. This is two cups. I’m going to add it just like that. Then, I’m going to, you know, finish it off with the rest of my liquid. Because there’s no, you know, raw chicken in here. What I like to do is I like to try the liquid. There’s a little bit more bouan. Just like that. And that way you’ll have always the perfect seasoned rice. You season as you go, you taste as you go. You’re cooking at home. You’re making some good food. That’s the best way to go about it. Crank the heat. Once it starts bubbling right away, we’re going to drop it to a low and cover. Cook it 15 to 20 minutes. It’s that simple. Last major component we’re going to make is the white sauce. I feel like a chemist every time I make it. It always tastes a little bit different, but in a good way. If you want to change change it a little bit, you want to make it your little flare, do that. You like the little dad. In a large bowl, I’m going to go in with a hefty amount of our mayo. This is going to be equal parts mayo, two sour cream, just like this. In goes our beautiful yogurt like this. So, the ratio I’m following is two parts mayo, two parts sour cream, and one part yogurt. And I’m making a lot of this cuz all of these ingredients have a decently long shelf life. It’s going to last 2 3 weeks. And my sauce is one of those things that goes well with anything. I personally like to add a little bit more chicken bouan. Just a little bit. Right now, I’m going to add some more dried oregano, but you can very easily add some dried mint. I prefer the oregano. It’s a little bit more subtle. And then black pepper on the finest settings. You know, I saw somebody say they skip a video if they see someone use this. I I feel like a loser. And then for our liquids, I’m going to do a little bit of white vinegar. I’m going to grab a clove of heartburn and I’m going to grate it. You have to grate it in. It makes it into a paste that literally melts in the white sauce. So, what this needs is a tiny pinch of salt. Don’t go too much. Last but not least, we need a little bit of lemon juice. It’s nice and creamy and smooth, but I like it a little bit more watery, and that’s what I’m going to add a little bit of water. Just a touch. It’s not official until it’s in a bottle. I’m going to take this little squeeze bottle, throw it into our bottle, just like this. Grab a quick rubber spatula. I balled the measurements, and they came out perfect. Alhamdulillah. Now, to really get that New York experience, behind me is a flat top. We’re outside. We’re embracing the last two warm days in Michigan. This has been marinating for like 2 hours. I let it sit out for a little bit just to come back to room temperature. So, on a really hot black stone, we’re just going to throw our Oh, baby, that smells good. Don’t toss them in gloss them. Just let them vibe out for a second. And then on the warm side of the grill that’s on the high heat, we’re going to flip them to that side. Now that the chicken kind of dried up a little bit, it’s cooked through for the last 8 minutes. It has a little bit of integrity. We’re going to have to unleash the New York in us. Okay. Kind of grip it with the tong. We’re going to chop it up. I’m going to also lower the heat. I feel like it’s pretty hot. The chicken’s juicy. Every little piece has its own character. It would took like 15 minutes to do this and you have food for the whole week if you want or the whole family. This is just going to go into our tray right here. All right, it’s the final stretch. It’s time to finally plate. We got our beautiful fluffy rice here. Like sometimes I get so pissed off that you can’t just be here trying it. This is textbook rice. We’re going to make a nice layer on the plate just like this. Now I throw on some gloves. I’m going to throw on my beautiful chicken. Now in New York they do lettuce and tomato on the side. I’m just going to do lettuce and cucumber. We’re just going to drizzle lots and lots of white sauce. You got to load it up. Every bite got to have white sauce. So, real quickly, this is a original harissa hot sauce. It’s really, really good. I’m going to do like a light zip. And now this is my chicken over rice cart style. And as always, namah. Mhm. Amazing.