This clay pot chicken rice is so addictive! Beyond the greatness of the tender and moist chicken, the rice absorbs all the extract from the mushrooms and chicken grease, and is then seasoned with oyster sauce. It is SO good! My recipe teaches you the easiest way to create a super flavorful one-pot dinner without a clay pot or rice cooker.
A brief introduction to Chinese clay pot cooking
Clay pot rice (煲仔饭, bao zai fan) originated from Cantonese cuisine, but is now becoming popular throughout China. The term generally refers to rice with marinated meat and vegetables, cooked in one pot, then drizzled with a flavorful sauce. A perfectly cooked claypot rice has a great flavor of all the ingredients, with nicely crisped rice on the bottom of the pot.
There are many types of clay pot rice, for example, pork ribs with black beans, Chinese sausage, salted fish, and even frog (unusual, but really delicious).
When cooking a perfect clay pot rice, the trickiest part is to control the heat so that all the ingredients are cooked perfectly at the same time. On the flip side, you might end up with uncooked rice on the top, burnt rice on the bottom, the rice ending up like porridge, or the meat not cooked through.
While I was doing research for this dish, I encountered two theories for cooking it. One theory is to cook everything together with the rice from the beginning, until cooked through (it is supposed to be the authentic way). The other theory is to cook the rice and meat separately. When the rice is half cooked, the meat and veggies are added to the rice.
My recipe uses the second approach.
The reasons behind this are:
- The chicken tastes better if browned first
- It is easier to control the doneness of the whole dish
- This method is more suitable for cooking without a clay pot or rice cooker.
Why this recipe
When I develop a recipe, I don’t sacrifice flavor in order to reduce the number of cooking steps. So you might find an easier clay pot chicken rice recipe than this one. But remember, sometimes you need to spend some time and energy to create a better flavor. I’ve tried my best to simplify the cooking process and reduce the total number of ingredients, while still achieving the best flavor. This way, you can:
- Cook it without a clay pot or rice cooker
- Learn all the tips to avoiding uncooked, soggy, or burnt rice
- Finish prep and cooking in less than 1 hour (including soaking the rice)
- Create a super tasty one-dish meal with relatively few ingredients
- Use the cooking video below to go through the cooking process in 5 minutes
The doneness of the rice
If you have a kitchen scale, please use it to measure the rice. Although 1 cup of rice can generally be converted to 210 grams (7.4 ounces), my measurement somehow ended up with 1 cup of rice equaling 230 grams (8.1 ounces) for the rice I used. If you’re using a measuring cup instead of a kitchen scale, it won’t cause any serious issues, but the rice might end up a bit softer.
Adjust the amount of water according to the ingredients you’re using, because the ingredients themselves contain water and will add extra moisture to the rice. For example, if you add more green vegetables than called for in the recipe, you might want to slightly reduce the amount of water.
Even if you measure everything, you might still need to adjust the amount of water according to the cooking results, because there are so many factors affecting the doneness of the rice. For example, the type of grain, the type of stove, and the cooking equipment used all have an impact.
Cooking tips
Soak the rice for 30 minutes and drain. This is very important. It helps the rice cook through evenly.
Use a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot. It will hold and disperse heat better, so the rice will cook evenly.
In the end, I hope you won’t be scared away by this relatively long cooking note! If you try to cook this dish once, you’ll actually find that the cooking process is very easy and quick. Be prepared if the texture of the rice doesn’t come out perfectly the first time, though. If you have trouble with the doneness of the rice, please leave a note below and let me know your cooking process in detail, so I can help with troubleshooting.
More delicious one-pot dinner
- Cantonese Ground Beef Rice and Eggs
- Steamed Salmon in Black Bean Sauce
- Chicken Udon Soup
- Korean Army Stew (Budae Jjigae)
- Teriyaki Chicken (Yoshinoya Copycat)
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
The Best Clay Pot Chicken Rice (鸡肉煲仔饭)
Ingredients
For the rice
- 1 cup (230 grams) raw white rice (short round) (*see footnote 1)
- 350 milliliters water (about 1 and 1/2 cup)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 15 (20 grams / 0.5 ounces) dried shiitake mushrooms (or 2 cups fresh shiitake mushrooms)
For marinade
- 2 (500 grams / 1 pound) bone-in chicken leg-and-thigh portions , chopped (*see footnote 2) or 4 boneless chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or Japanese sake)
- 1 teaspoon ginger , minced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
For the sauce
- 3 cloves garlic , crushed
- 4 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 cups Chinese broccoli, baby bok choy or chopped broccoli (Optional)
Instructions
For the Prep
- Rinse rice a few times and drain. Add water and mix. Let the rice soak for 30 minutes.
- Rinse shiitake mushrooms. Place dried shiitake mushrooms in a medium sized bowl and add warm water to cover. Mix a few times so that the mushrooms are coated with water. Set aside and allow to rehydrate for about 20 minutes. (Slice fresh mushroom if you use it instead.)
- Combine chicken, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, ginger, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. Blend in cornstarch and mix well by hand until chicken is evenly coated. Marinate at room temperature.
- When the shiitake mushrooms turn soft, carefully rinse mushrooms to remove any dirt. Drain and set aside.
Start cooking
- Drain rice and add into a medium sized dutch oven (or clay pot). Add 350 milliliters water. Add Heat over medium high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil and mix well. Bring to a boil while stirring regularly, just like cooking risotto. Turn to medium heat. Continue to cook and stir, until the water is almost absorbed by the rice, about 5 minutes. Cover and simmer over lowest heat for 10 minutes.
- While simmering the rice, cook the chicken and mushrooms. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil into a nonstick skillet over medium high heat until warm. Add chicken and let it cook for 1 minute without stirring. Place the chicken so that you cook the skin side first, until golden brown. Flip and cook the other side until golden brown, and the chicken is half cooked through. Turn to lowest heat. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
- (Optional) Use a spoon to transfer the extra oil to a small bowl, until just a thin layer of oil remains in the skillet. If you use skinless chicken, skip this step.
- Turn back to medium high heat and add shiitake mushrooms. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
- When the rice is ready (the water should be fully absorbed by now), arrange chicken, mushrooms, and Chinese broccoli on top of the rice. Cover and continue to simmer for 18-20 minutes (the longer you simmer, the more crispy the rice on the bottom will be). Be careful - you should move as quickly as you can, so the temperature of the rice won’t drop too much.
- While the rice is cooking, mix the oyster sauce with the sugar and garlic in a small bowl.
- When the rice is done, remove from heat and uncover. Drizzle oyster sauce on top immediately, while the rice is hot, and mix everything well with a spatula. I suggest you scrape the rice from the bottom while the pot is still warm. Otherwise, it will be a bit difficult to scoop out.
- Serve hot as a main dish/
Notes
- If you have a kitchen scale, please use it to measure the rice. Although 1 cup of rice can generally be converted to 210 grams (7.4 ounces), my measurement somehow ended up with 1 cup of rice equaling 230 grams (8.1 ounces) for the rice I used. If you’re using a measuring cup instead of a kitchen scale, it won’t cause any serious issues, but the rice might end up a bit softer.
- Ask the butcher to chop the chicken leg-thigh portions into 4 to 5 pieces. Alternatively, you can use chicken drumsticks, boneless thigh, or wings. Chicken breast won’t work very well in this recipe.
Maggie- I did use my clay pot instead, but followed all your instructions/ingredients. Aside from being a bit greasy (chicken fat?), it was absolutely delicious.
Hello. Was wondering what qt size is your Le Cresuet pot and how many cups of rice did you cook ? I have a 4qt Staub and was wondering if it would cook 3 cups of rice.
I think I used a small pot, 3.5 qt. I don’t think 4qt is enough if you plan to triple the recipe (including the chicken). I would use a bigger dutch oven, maybe 5.5 qt or even bigger.
Tried it just today. Was amazing. I’ve tried a couple of recipes for claypot before but this was probably the best one to date. Also, I omitted the ShaoXing Wine coz I didn’t have any and it still tasted fine! The whole family loved it. Thanks for all the details 😁
My rice unfortunately turned out like porridge. It was dry before I added in the chicken, chinese yu choy, and mushrooms and after the simmering it for 20 mins it was a watery mess hahaha maybe I’ll have half the water next time to cook the rice.
Hello! Just wondering if it will work if I cook it in a CorningWare pot? Thanks!
I’ve never used a CorningWare pot before but i think it should work the same.
Is your clay cooking pot glazed or unglazed? Does it matter, and how does it matter, whether the pot used is glazed or unglazed? If I can purchase only one Chinese Clay Pot, should it be glazed?
Hi Hannah, I actually didn’t use a clay pot for this recipe, so it doesn’t really matter for this one.
If you’d like to purchase a clay pot, the traditional way is to use unglazed.
The moist of the rice will be cooked off better and result in a crispy crunchy crust. The glazed one will not have this effect.
Should the cooking time vary depending on the rice and water measurements? If so, do you know an approximate total cooking time for 1, 2, 3 and 4 cups of rice? thank you!
Hi Li, the rice cooking time does not change depending on the rice volume.
Hi there, I love your blog and have consistently gotten great results by following your recipes! For this claypot rice, what would liquid proportions be if I was using brown rice?
For brown rice, the water ratio is usually 1:2. I would either soak the brown rice beforehand, or increase 10 minutes simmer time, because brown rice takes longer to cook through.
I loveeeeee clay pot chicken and rice!!! I had some chicken breasts that needed to be cooked so this recipe saved the day!
I increased the amount of rice to 2 cups, but will definitely do 3 cups next time. I used a short grain rice and adjusted the liquid to 1 3/4 cups of water which was perfect. Pro tip: since the rice was soaked in water, use a 1:1 ratio for rice to water, but use a little less water to account for the liquid from the steam + chicken, etc. This will prevent the rice from getting mushy.
I also omitted the sugar in the sauce and added half of it to the rice while it was cooking and the other half of the sauce to the mushrooms when they were sautéing. Perfect!
Thanks for a delicious recipe, Maggie!
So happy to hear you like the recipe 🙂 And yes, it totally makes sense to use slightly less water so the rice will stay crispy.
Thanks for leaving a thorough and positive review!
Watching your video, I’m wondering…you show the choy in the pot to cook, but when you stir in the sauce at the end, it’s not there. Do you take it out, stir in the sauce, & then add it back in?
I did take them out because my pot was too tiny and there’s no space for stirring (I made this video when I was living in China and pan sizes are small). You don’t need to take it out if your pot is big enough for the mixing.
The taste was yummy, but my rice came out mushier than I prefer & I had to cook it longer to get the rice crunchy at the bottom. I soaked the rice longer than instructed, so maybe that’s why? I added Chinese sausage as well, yum! I used book choy, but I think next time I’ll add it more towards the end of cooking or use a sturdier veggie because it seemed to melt into the rice & wasn’t that noticeable. I was also thinking of adding baby corn, but my pot was kinda full. Thanks for the recipe, I will try it again!
I think soaking the rice longer can be one of the reasons. Also, the type of rice and the condition of other ingredients would also affect the water ratio (e.g. sometimes larger cut of chicken would release more juice). If you’re cooking it next time, I would totally reduce the water for a firmer texture.
Re veggies – maybe try Chinese broccoli or regular broccoli next time. To add more veggies and cook them to a more perfect texture, I would just blanch them separately and mix them in at the end with the sauce.
My family loved it . Thank you Maggie.
I wasn’t sure if I could get the same crispy bottom as the ones at the bo zai fan places in HK. Used your recipe with a staub pot, added extra ingredients with lap cheung and lap meat.
BEST CRUST ever, also just delicious and smells amazingggg!
I cannot use chinese wine or sake is there any replacement to that?
For this dish you can use some chicken broth to replace the wine.
I have a 4qt dutch oven! Is this recipe ok to use with that size?
Yes, a 4 qt pot should work.
Wow this will become a family staple thank you! Kids absolutely loved it, I used long grain so I’ll need to adjust water and cooking time in future as it’s the rice we prefer but the flavour was incredible. So glad I doubled the recipe, with two teens in the house I wanted to be sure there was enough and the whole lot was scoffed thanks again!
What capacity is a medium sized Dutch oven? Would a 4qt work?I love your site and recipes !
A 4qt dutch oven will work! Happy cooking 🙂
Delicious! I simmered it for 22 mins but will try simmering for a little longer next time to get more crispy rice at the bottom.
Can you make this in the oven?
I think there’s a way to make it in the oven, but I cannot provide further details (like baking time, temperature, water adjustment etc) without testing it myself.
Is it possible to make this without the rice, for a low-carb option?
It is possible but it kinda defeat the purpose because the recipe uses the kitchen to make the rice tasty.
One thing I can think of is to use some cubed winter squash (butternut or kabocha) to lay under the chicken, and the squash will be cooked by the time that the chicken is done.
That being said, it’s possible to skip the rice. In that case, you can keep cooking the chicken in the frying pan. Simply add a splash of water (or broth) so the pan won’t try out, then proceed to cover and cook the chicken after pan frying.