Chicken with prunes and wild rice Recipe

Chicken with prunes and wild rice is a great dish to make ahead.

Slow cooking the chicken thighs with prunes helps to amplify the flavours of the dish and the chicken will become lovely and tender.

Prunes are a great source of potassium and vitamins. They aid digestion and help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels too.

We have served the dish with black rice but if you’ve only got basmati or wild rice in the cupboard that works perfectly too. Black rice is widely available and makes a great talking point at dinner parties as your guest may not have seen it before. Check out this recipe for coconut crusted fish with black rice for the next time you make black rice as well.

You could serve the chicken with prunes with some rustic crusty bread to soak up any leftover juices.

Ingredients

• 3tbsp olive oil
• 8 chicken thighs
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 100g prunes
• 100g green olives
• 4tbsp capers
• 1 small bunch fresh oregano
• 200ml white wine
• 200ml chicken stock
• 1 bunch parsley

For the rice:

• 320g black rice or wild rice
• 1.5Lml chicken stock
• 50g sultanas
• 50g pecans, toasted

Method

1. Heat the oil and fry the chicken until brown. Remove and set aside, add the garlic, prunes, olives and capers with half the oregano. Stir to heat through and pour in the white wine and chicken stock, return the chicken pieces to the pan and cook for 45mins to 1hr.
2. For the rice: cook the rice in the stock (covered) for 40-45mins (check packet instructions for exact timing depending on what kind of rice you use), 5mins before the rice is ready add the sultanas.
3. Serve the rice with the chicken and sauce, topped with parsley, remaining oregano and toasted pecans.