Food
One Pot Turmeric Vegetable and Rice Skillet Recipe
Nov
Life is busy, but we all still want delicious food for dinner. Luckily, this Turmeric Vegetable and Rice Skillet has got you covered. Ready in under 15 minutes, it will appease both your need for a quick dinner (with leftovers, if you’re not feeding an army!) and your desire for delicious, different meals!
Turmeric Vegetable and Rice Skillet – the Ingredients
This one-pot skillet meal consists of a lot of fresh ingredients, so you can really feel good about what you’re eating!
You’ll need some fresh veggies: 2 cups of sugar snap peas, 1-2 cups sliced and halved zucchini, 1 diced bell pepper 8 oz sliced mushrooms and 3 large carrots. You’ll also want to grab a can of baby corn.
For meat, you’ll need a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast (but you could totally make this meatless and just use extra veggies instead!).
You only need two other ingredients: a jar or bag of masala sauce – which you can find with the Indian foods at your local grocery store – and a bag of ready-to-eat turmeric rice. I found a bag of turmeric rice made by Lundberg Family Farms at Whole Foods. (check out the substitutions below if you can only find plain rice!)
If you’re looking for other quick, one-pot skillet meals, I highly suggest this Spanish Rice and Chorizo Skillet and Coconut Chicken Curry. All three of these are skillet meals, but they’re so different that you could make one every other night for a week and be happy!
What is Masala Sauce? What does it taste like?
Masala sauce has a tomato base, and different companies make their sauce differently. The sauce will contain spices such as turmeric, ginger, coriander, and/or saffron. The sauce I used is a masala butter sauce, so it is very similar to the sauce used in butter chicken. Both butter chicken and masala chicken have a creamy sauce, often thickened with yogurt. The jarred sauce is more likely to be thickened with buttermilk, but is still thick, creamy and delicious!
Be careful – even the mild sauce definitely still has some spice and bite to it! It’s the perfect amount of spice for me; just don’t fool yourself into thinking mild means non-spicy.
Making the Turmeric Vegetable and Rice Skillet
Get all of your veggies ready before you start cooking: diced and slice zucchini, rinse baby corn (and halve if desired), dice bell pepper, peel and slice large carrots, and cut ends off sugar snap peas.
Cube the pound of chicken, and add it to a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and saute the chicken over medium heat until cooked through. Remove chicken to a plate.
Add remaining tablespoon of oil to skillet. Add all of your veggies to the skillet, and toss gently with spatula or wooden spoon to coat with oil. Cover skillet with lid (quick tip: if your skillet doesn’t have a lid, cover it with a cookie sheet) and let veggies cook until crisp-tender, about 3-5 minutes.
Use your fingers to break up rice in the pouch before opening. Stir rice and chicken into the veggies. Then pour the masala sauce over the top and stir until sauce evenly coats everything. Heat for a minute or two, until sauce and rice are warm.
This dish reheats well in the microwave. The sauce is thick enough that the veggies and rice don’t absorb the sauce or dry it up in the refrigerator. When I reheated this turmeric vegetable and rice skillet, it was still saucy and creamy and so good!
Tips, Tricks and Substitutions
- I can’t find ready-to-eat turmeric rice. Help!
- Here’s a quick tumeric rice DIY: Buy a pouch of plain ready-to-eat rice. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. Pour into the rice and add 1/2-1 tablespoon of turmeric and a clove of crushed garlic. Stir and use in place of bagged turmeric rice in recipe.
- How can I make this even faster?
- Here are two quick ways to make your skillet meal even more quickly: 1) use refrigerated, precooked chicken strips in place of raw, boneless, skinless chicken breast or 2) eliminate the meat altogether and make this a meatless dish. Either way, you’ll cut 4 or 5 minutes off your cooking time!
15 Minute Turmeric Vegetable and Rice Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 jar or pouch 12-15 oz masala sauce
- 1 pouch ready-to-eat turmeric rice
- 3 large carrots peeled and sliced
- 2 c. sliced and halved zucchini
- 8 oz sliced mushrooms
- 1 can 15 oz baby corn, drained
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium.
- Cube chicken and add to skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Saute 3-5 minutes, until cooked through and no longer pink. Remove to plate.
- Add remaining tablespoon oil and all vegetables to skillet. Toss gently with spatula or wooden spoon to coat. Cover skillet with lid and let cook 3-4 minutes, until veggies are crisp-tender.
- Remove lid. Break up rice in pouch with fingers before opening. Stir rice and chicken into veggies.
- Pour masala sauce into skillet and stir gently to combine. Heat for a minute. Serve hot.
Notes
- If you do not have a lid for your large skillet, cover with a cookie sheet.
- If you cannot find turmeric rice, add 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/2-1 tablespoon ground turmeric and 1 crushed clove of garlic to a pouch of ready-to-eat plain rice.
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