Tangy Rice Pot with Chicken and Green Beans

Let’s talk about sumac. In the US, it’s not a very common ingredient. I’m going to be 100% honest with you, internet… When I first saw a recipe with sumac as an ingredient, I immediately though about poison sumac, the third in the itchy trifecta of poisons ivy, oak, and sumac. Why would anyone want to eat that?? No one wants to and turns out, no one is. Looking into it, I learned that the sumac spice is made of ground Rhus coriaria berries, one of several dozen of plants in that genus. Poison sumac on the other hand is officially Toxicodendron vernix, but it used to be known as Rhus vernix! Hence the colloquial name that matches the other sumacs.

I came to realize that I’ve had sumac many times before, in restaurants and in pre-made spices mixes like za’atar. I just didn’t know what it was! When we started cooking more Turkish dishes since we started this blog, the lack of sumac in my spice cabinet became more noticeable. {Check out our sumac tag for other recipes we’ve made featuring this spice!} It took us a little while to find some, but check out your nearest Middle Eastern or Mediterranean grocer. Now that I’m an experienced sumac consumer, I want to put it on everything! I mean seriously, I have no idea why this spice hasn’t crossed over into mainstream American kitchens yet… It is delicious and can add such a unique flavor to many different dishes. I made up this dinner around the leftover lemon I had in the fridge from making Lemon-Lime Ricotta Cookies, and I thought I’d combine tang with tang and add the sumac. It worked well without being too sour or overpowering. It’s a perfect one pot dish for a weeknight, with fairly minimal hands-on cooking time.

Tangy Rice Pot with Chicken & Green Beans

Ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp+ neutral oil
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 2/3 cup rice, uncooked
• Juice of 1 large lemon (~3 tbsp)
• 1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• ~1lb fresh green beans, snapped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sumac
• Salt & pepper

Instructions: 

1. Select a saute pan with tall sizes (alternatively, a dutch oven would work). Heat the oil over medium.
2. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and season with salt & pepper. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken to the pan. Cook for just 3-4 minutes, reducing the translucency, and then remove to the side. (The chicken will not be cooked all the way at this point.)
3. Add a bit more oil if needed, then cook the garlic and onions. Season with some more pepper. Cook until fragrant and softened, ~5 minutes.
4. Return the chicken to the pan, along with the rice, stock, spices, and lemon juice. Stir. Make sure rice is submerged in the liquid.
5. Top with the green beans, pushing them down into the liquid gently. The green beans do not have to be completely submerged.
6. Bring to a boil and then immediately lower heat to low. Cover, ensuring that the liquid is only lightly simmering.
7. Cook over low heat for 30-40 minutes. Roughly halfway through, stir and then re-cover.
8. Watch closely towards the end. Depending on your variety of rice, you may need a little more liquid or a little more or less cooking time.
9. Season with additional salt as need. Ours definitely needed it, but we also used salt-free chicken stock.

Serves 4.