Chicken with Garlic Parmesan Rice is the perfect dish for easy weeknight dinners. This quick chicken and rice recipe is not only tasty but it uses ingredients you likely have on hand. Simply use chicken tenders, white rice and white wine to quickly whip up this easy dinner!
Serve it with the healthy addition of Cranberry, Walnut and Spinach Salad, or delicious Avocado Salad.
Chicken and rice recipe is one of my all time favorite foods and the thing I search out the most on restaurant menus. But when I’m home I make it from scratch because the recipe is so easy!
Why make chicken and rice
Chicken and rice is a terrific way to stretch your meal budget! For a family of four or five, you can get by with just a pound, or a pound and a half of chicken and several cups of rice.
You can also use this as a meal prep by dividing the entire meal into four equal portions and storing them in ziplock bags frozen or refrigerated. Use this recipe to plan ahead your healthy meals for the week!
What kind of rice should I use
I used Jasmine rice in this recipe. It’s white rice of the long grain variety, which means the rice grains remain distinct and not very sticky. You can also use basmati rice, although jasmine is plumper, softer, and a bit more moist than basmati.
How to Make Chicken with Garlic Parmesan Rice
Garlic parmesan rice with chicken is super simple, especially if you prepare all your ingredients in advance. It’s literally as easy as 1,2,3!!
- Cook Chicken: Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high heat (I cook about 5 minutes per side until nicely browned). I like to use a lean chicken tenderloins or chicken tenders. You can also use skinless and boneless chicken thighs here. Remove and set aside.
- Make Saucy Rice: Add garlic, wine, chicken broth and RICE to the pan. Wine and garlic will flavor and coat every morsel of rice as they slowly cook together.
Cook rice in the amazing sauce:
- Add Parmesan: Parmesan should go once the rice is ready and after you add the chicken back to the pan.
WHAT KIND OF WINE TO USE
First things first, I do not recommend using a cooking wine. Not only because it will not add a rich taste to the dish, but also because it’s full of sodium and will make your food way too salty!
Also, I do not recommend using the wine that you usually drink. You can go cheaper here as long as you do use a regular drinking wine. I love Pinot Grigio because it’s a crisp, lemony-lime, dry white wine.
BEST NON-ALCOHOLIC SUBSTITUTES FOR WINE IN COOKING
- Chicken or vegetable stock. Substitute stock for white wine entirely if you don’t have any wine on hand.
- White Wine Vinegar is a wonderful substitute for dry white wine. Made from white wine, it has many of the same flavor characteristics. Minus the alcohol. In this recipe you should start with ¼ cup vinegar. Thank you, Emily, for providing this tip!
- Rice Vinegar – do not use it! A brave reader attempted it and the result was simply miserable. Trashcan! Thank you Evangelina for reporting back.
- I do not recommend Apple Cider Vinegar. It can be too strong as a substitute. A reader recommended to add ONLY a splash of it. If you choose to use ACV, make sure to start with 1 tablespoon. Add more only you desire a stronger flavor.
- For extra flavor, try mixing a tablespoon of lemon juice per cup of stock.
Enjoy!
Even more mouthwatering rice recipes
Cajun Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole
Chicken with Garlic Parmesan Rice
Ingredients
- 1 lb. chicken tenders
- Salt and pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup butter, (1 stick)
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoons salt, divided
- ½ cup dry white wine, (such as Pinot Grigio)
- 1 ½ cups white rice, (uncooked)
- 3 cups chicken broth
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, (grated or shredded)
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Season chicken with salt and pepper and garlic powder. Sauté chicken tenders until nicely browned and just cooked through. Remove from skillet and set aside.
- Add butter, garlic, pepper flakes and ½ teaspoon of salt to the empty skillet and sauté garlic for a couple of minutes on medium heat.
- Turn heat to medium high and add white wine. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside 3 tablespoons of pan sauce to use later.
- Add uncooked rice to skillet with remaining butter sauce. Stir well – make sure it’s completely covered. Add chicken broth and remaining ½ teaspoon of salt. Bring mixture to a low boil then reduce heat to medium-low, cover pan and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir several times while it’s cooking
- Sprinkle parmesan over rice then arrange chicken tenders in skillet over rice. Cover, remove from heat then let stand for 5 minutes.
- Drizzle reserved 3 tablespoons of pan sauce over chicken tenders when serving and garnish with parsley.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Allison says
This was incredible! Even used dairy free butter and it was great!
Olya says
So glad it worked with the dairy free butter!
Veronica C says
This meal was delicious! A big win in the house too. Easy to make and quick. There is seriously nothing wrong with this meal, it’s perfect!
Olya says
Veronica, thank you so much – you are so kind!
donna mckenna says
can you freeze this meal and serve later
Olya says
You can freeze it!
Janet Bradley says
Sounds ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!! Could I use Chardonnay wine?
Olya says
Yes, definitely!
Brandi says
This meal was delicious! I will definitely be making it for my family again.
Carrie says
Has anyone made this with brown rice?
Olya says
It should work with brown rice – you might want to add a bit more water as it will cook longer.
Trina says
I’m making mine right now with organic Mahatma brown rice. It takes 25 minutes longer to cook. We will see how it tastes.
Olya says
How did it go?
Natural7ly says
I made it with brown rice and it was absolutely awful! I love brown rice, and, since I loved it so much with white rice, I thought it would be even better with brown.
I cooked it longer of course because the brown rice takes longer, but the flavor was somehow off
I was not happy because I felt that I wasted my good ingredients
We enjoyed the chicken but my husband would not touch that rice!
Olya says
Thank you for your attempt with brown rice! Now we know!
CAthy says
Very good, will make it again!!!
Megan G says
Making this tonight and doubling it for a family of 9. What size would a serving be on average? half a cup of rice and 1 tender? Just curious. I plan on halving the butter for a lower fat option but keeping all the rest as is! Looking forward to this!
Olya says
I might want to triple it, just in case.
Karen says
Made this tonight, super easy and super delicious. I omitted the salt as my butter was salted and I thought the stock would be flavor enough. I also didn’t have pepper flakes so substituted 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Was just the right amount of zing. Definitely going into the favorites list!
Jen says
Could I use boneless skinless chicken breasts in place of the tenders? I can’t find them anywhere.
Olya says
Absolutely!