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The easiest One Pan Chipotle Honey Chicken and Rice, our new weeknight staple. Chicken breasts or thighs seasoned with olive oil, parmesan cheese, chipotle, paprika, garlic, and salt. All tossed together with dry basmati rice and sliced zucchini. Top the chicken with a spicy honey sauce just as it comes out of the oven. This juicy spicy/smoky chicken and rice is all made in one pan – no cooking the rice separately. Simply mix, bake, eat, and enjoy. You’re going to LOVE this.
I think I’m in my “quick and easy” era. One of the things that I find so inspiring about Taylor Swift is her ability to continue to recreate herself. She never stops. And because she has the ability to always be evolving and changing, she never gets boring. We always want more from her!
I hope in a way I can be like this. I definitely am the type of person that has “eras”. Periods when life looks a little different than other times. And I’m always, changing and growing, literally by the day.
The point is, right now I’m in a quick and easy era.
Because of this, I get to be creative with recipes. How can I make this taste the yummiest but also be easy? What ingredients can I use that are multi-purpose?
I think about it all. And certainly, nothing is easier than a dinner that cooks up all in one pan. Especially a one-pan chicken and rice situation. We just love a one-pan recipe that’s also filled with yummy flavor!
Onto the details
Step 1: season up the chicken
I wanted to create a spicy, smoky chicken. So I decided on chipotle honey garlic! Such a delicious flavor profile that most people love.
Take chicken breasts or thighs (or do a mix) and mix them together with olive oil, grated parmesan cheese, chipotle in adobo, paprika, onion powder, and fresh chopped-up garlic.
Step 2: the rice and zucchini
Next, get a 9×13 inch baking dish, add the dry rice and sliced rounds (or chopped chunks) of zucchini. Pour over the water, which will cook into the dry rice while baking.
Place the chicken directly over the rice and set the pan in the oven to cook. The rice will get fluffy and the chicken becomes crispy!
Step 3: the honey sauce
While the chicken bakes, work on the honey sauce. This is a very simple mix of honey, hot sauces, and spices all simmered together gently on the stove.
As the chicken comes out of the oven, spoon the sauce directly over each piece.
Step 4: add basil and enjoy
Finish the dish with fresh basil. Or use parsley, green onion, thyme, cilantro, or whatever you love or have on hand. I think basil and parsley work best.
Serve the fluffy rice under each piece of chicken, then extra honey sauce on top! Oh, and a little sea salt and some lemon juice are really nice too.
As the chicken roasts, the juices drip down into the rice creating flavorful rice and roasting up the zucchini too. It’s so delicious!
And the chicken doesn’t dry out since it’s roasted with a bit of water. As the water cooks into the rice, the chicken slowly and beautifully roasts and gets perfectly crisp.
I love to serve this with my favorite loaf of 5 ingredient beer bread. This is certainly a wonderful transitional dinner that will be nice heading into September!
Looking for other easy chicken and rice dinners? Here are my favorites:
One Pan Lemon Pepper Yogurt Chicken and Rice
One Skillet Louisiana Style Chicken and Rice
Broccoli Cheddar Chicken and Rice Casserole
Cheesy Zucchini Chicken and Rice Bake
Slow Cooker Herbed Chicken and Rice Pilaf
Spicy Sesame Chicken and Ginger Rice
Lastly, if you make this One Pan Chipotle Honey Chicken and Rice, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
One Pan Chipotle Honey Chicken and Rice
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 687 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs or breasts (skin on or off)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1-2 tablespoons chopped chipotle in adobo
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 3/4 cups dry basmati rice
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 2 cups sliced/chopped zucchini
Hot Honey
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2-3 tablespoons hot sauce
- 1-3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 teaspon onion powder
- sea salt
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 400°.2. In a bowl, toss together the chicken, olive oil, parmesan, chipotle, paprika, onion powder, garlic, lemon, salt, and pepper. 3. Pour the rice and zucchini into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Pour over 2 cups of water. Add the butter. Arrange the chicken over the rice and zucchini. Bake 30-40 minutes, until the rice is fluffy and the chicken is cooked through. If the rice is hard, add 1/3 cup more water and cook for an additional 10 minutes.4. To make the sauce. In a sauce pot, warm together the honey, hot sauce, cayenne, chili powder, onion powder, and a pinch of salt.5. When the chicken is done, spoon half the sauce over the chicken. Serve the chicken, rice, and zucchini topped with fresh basil and extra honey sauce. Enjoy!
Amazing flavors in this recipe! I would highly recommend adjusting the amount of spicy seasonings to your tastebuds. Reading the other comments, I decided to use half chicken broth and half water for the rice, and I did the amount of liquid based on the packaging and amount of dry rice that I used (which was more than the HBH recipe). I did the full 40 mins, then pulled it out of the oven and stirred up all of the rice with the chicken, covered the chicken with the rice, and then put the zucchini on top and back into the oven for just another 5 mins. I used the broiler for just about a minute at the end to give the zucchini a nice little crisp. I think these little extra steps really helped with the rice and the zucchini! Another smash, thank you Tieghan!
Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! Hope you enjoyed it 🙂 xT
I made this for Sunday family dinner. Everyone enjoyed it. It was delicious. Next time I will double the hot honey. Donna from Westlake , Ohio!
Thank you so much Donna! xT
The hot honey sauce was delicious and made this dish! Unfortunately, without it, it was a little bland. I don’t understand because the chicken had a ton of good seasoning. It’s definitely worth another try though. It was really nice to have it all cook together in one pan and my rice turned out great!
Thank you for the feedback Michelle! xT
The chicken is so good! I would definitely cook the rice separately. It came out hard even after adding more water like the recipe suggested. I will use rice cooker next time.
Hey there! Thank you so much for the feedback! I appreciate it! xT
Really loved this! The hot honey was addictive. I tend to prefer brown rice, so I added some partially cooked brown rice instead of white, and left out the water. Came out great, as it fully cooked with the juices and liquid from the zucchini.
Love to hear this! Thank you so so much! xT
This recipe looks fantastic, but I was wondering if anyone had tried to use shredded zucchini mixed in with the rice instead. I have picky eaters, but plenty of zucchini! Thanks!
Hi there! I haven’t ever tried that but it should work well! xT
This recipe is BOMB! The rice was super well cooked, except for some super crunchy pieces that were in every bite. Any tips on preventing this from happening?
Love to hear that! Hmmm was it the rice that was crunchy? If so, I would add more liquid!
This one-dish chicken is now on our meal rotation list, it’s that easy and that good! It’s perfect for the fall, when I have zucchini coming from our garden. There are only 3 of us at home, so I use 4 thighs, 1 C Minute Rice, (because sometimes I can’t get rice to cook all the way through), 1 can chicken broth (instead of the water), 3 cups zucchini, and 1/2 the chipotle adobo, otherwise, I follow the recipe exactly. I cook this in our little cuisinart toaster oven (it doesn’t heat the whole house up like my big oven), and it comes out so, so good! The honey topping sauce just takes this recipe over the top. Thanks for another winner, Tieghan!
Do you cover the pan while cooking?
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! Have an awesome weekend! xT
Could you make ahead and freeze this dish? How would you reheat if frozen with the rice?
Hey Alex, I haven’t ever tried freezing this before so I can’t say! So sorry! xT
I made this dish for my son and split into 6 meals to send to college with it froze well and when thawed he said it was “delicious”!!! Mama is a winner thanks Half-Baked
Thank you for giving this recipe a try! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! xT
Absolutely amazing!!! We are vegetarian and I subbed the chicken for tofu and this dish came out incredibly flavourful and delicious! Super easy and quick to make. My fiancé was obsessed. Thank you for the amazing recipe
Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! xT
The heat of this dish was perfect! Extremely filling. I can never say no to a an excellent one pan meal!
Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! Glad to hear you enjoyed it! xT
Aaaaamazing! Such good flavors and such an easy weeknight yummy recipe! Thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment! Glad you enjoyed the recipe! Have a great day 🙂 xT
We loved the hot honey sauce and chicken but found the rice and zucchini pretty bland. The basamati rice that I have, at least, calls for 1 cup of rice to 1 3/4 cups of water, so it never would have cooked properly with the proportions given in the recipe (as another reviewer who ended up with “crunchy” rice said). As a result, I cut the rice to 1 1/4 cups, and it came out as it should have. I’ll save the honey sauce recipe for other uses but sadly won’t be making the rest of it again.
Hey Helen! Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate it! xT
HOLY 🤬 The honey sauce was 🔥 and I used the smaller measurements for hot sauce and cayenne pepper!! It was delicious and sooooo easy! I’ll make again but I will be more conservative with the hot sauce and Cayenne pepper. Thanks!
Amazing! Thank you so much Renee! xT