Honey soy chicken with aromatic rice and broccoli

Here's a whole meal for you. I guess I could have made them separate items, but I do really like them together so thought why not. Feel free to cook them up individually, I've separated the ingredients for each part so you can choose which parts you actually want to make.

This is basically an average dinner or lunch for me. Carbs, obviously, and either chicken or fish. This one's chicken and you can use any part of the chicken really. I just prefer thighs!

Prep time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves: 2

Ingredients

4 x chicken thighs, skin on, trimmed of excess skin and fat (reserve this for the rice)

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 inches of ginger, finely grated

1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp sesame oil

Rice

1 cup of rise, rinsed

1 garlic clove, smashed

1 inch garlic, sliced and smashed

The excess chicken skin and fat from the chicken thighs (optional)

Salt to taste

Sautéed broccoli

2 cups broccoli florets

1 small onion, diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 cup mint, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Olive oil spray

Method

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a pan, and once browned remove.

2. Trim the excess chicken skin and fat, keeping it to one side, then combine all the chicken ingredients along with the chicken thighs in a bowl and let it marinate.

3. Fry off the chicken skin and fat in a small fry pan until it has rendered down and the pieces are more or less browned. Salt it while cooking if it's to your taste. Set aside.

4. Rinse your rice until the water runs clear, then cook it equal parts water to rice with the chicken skin and fat pieces, the oil that's rendered out, the garlic and the ginger.

5. While the rice is cooking, parboil the broccoli heads in salted water, then drain and set aside.

6. Place the chicken thighs in your air fryer (or oven if you have an oven), set it to 200 degrees Celsius and cook it for 15 minutes.

7. Sautee diced onion in a fry pan with a spray of olive oil, then once translucent, add in the broccoli and garlic, stirring until cooked.

8. Once all elements are cooked, place together on a plate, discarding any pieces of chicken skin, garlic or ginger from the rice.

Notes

• If you like a bit of sauce with your meals, reserve the left over chicken marinade and cook on the stove top until its thick and sticky, and drizzle over your rice and chicken.

• I like a bit of heat, so I served my dinner with a side of fresh chopped birds eye chili in soy sauce.

• If you have spring onion, add this to the rice while its cooking, it'll really freshen it up.

• Don't worry if the skin goes dark like mine did - its not burnt! It's just the caramelization of the soy and honey combination.