Chicken with bay leaf rice

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 soup chicken
• 2 large onions
• 3 bay leaves
• 500 g rice (parboiled or basmati)
• salt and pepper
• 1 liter chicken broth (in which the soup chicken was cooked)
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables
• 3 tbsp oil

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

old recipe from my mother, from Slovenia

This is a dish my mother always made as an alternative, because if you want chicken soup, you also have to cook a chicken, and what do you do with it? There is no chicken fricassee in Slovenian cuisine. Cook the chicken with the vegetables and a heavily roasted onion (cut the onion into thick slices and roast in a hot, dry pan until almost blackened for the best flavor) in a pressure cooker for about 25 minutes. Strain the broth, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Cut the chicken into four pieces (breast and thighs only, without the back). Finely chop the second onion and fry in oil until translucent. Add the rice and bay leaves and fry for a few minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper. Then deglaze with the chicken broth and transfer everything to an ovenproof dish. Place the chicken pieces skin-side up on top and roast at 220 degrees Celsius (425 degrees Fahrenheit) until the liquid has evaporated and the chicken skin is browned, which takes 35-45 minutes. The best thing about this dish is the rice; it tastes incomparable. You can also make this dish with fresh chicken, but then you won’t have that great chicken broth, and the rice won’t be quite as good. However, the meat will taste more tender.