Oh, it’s healthy. There’s no way it can taste good. Wrong.

Making things healthy and even making the macro friendly does not mean that they need to taste boring, drab, bland, and that is where the challenge lies. I’ve found my ways around the game and to figure out how to make things taste good.

Why You’ll Love This

It’s healthy, it’s good for you, it’s full of proteins, full of healthy carbohydrates, healthy fats. This isn’t delicious bowl that anybody can make. You can go up or down in the calories very easily.

Ingredients

For the Rice

• Two cups of medium grain rice
• Water

For the Chicken

• six to eight skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• Salt
• Vegetable oil (for greasing sheet tray)

For the Glaze

• medium-sized red jalapeno or red Fresno chili
• six tablespoons of any soy sauce you like
• four tablespoons of rice vinegar
• two tablespoons of a nice honey
• two cloves of garlic
• half tablespoon of cornstarch
• half tablespoon of water

For the Edamame Broccoli (Vegetable Element)

• Two crowns of broccoli
• half bag of frozen edamame
• a lemon
• Vegetable oil (or spray oil for cooking)
• Salt

For the Quick Pickle

• three tablespoons of vinegar
• one and a half tablespoons of water
• one teaspoon of kosher salt
• one teaspoon of sugar
• two carrots

For the Optional Toppings

• green onions
• avocado
• flaky sea salt
• pure kake

Instructions

1. We’ll start by rinsing and cooking our rice.
2. First, we have to wash the rice.
3. Wash two cups of medium grain rice.
4. You’re gonna fill this up with water, agitate it with your hand, and then carefully tilt the pot of your rice cooker just enough so as much of the water comes out as possible without losing any of your rice.
5. Repeat that about two more times.
6. Once that’s done, you’re just going to spread that rice out in a way that it’s one even layer.
7. Make sure there’s no rice on the side of the bowl.
8. We’re gonna add our water.
9. We’re gonna gently pour that water in to not disturb the rice too much.
10. Close it.
11. All right, the logical next step is to start on our chicken.
12. First, grease your sheet tray.
13. They’re going to need six to eight skinless, boneless chicken thighs.
14. Lay those out.
15. Give the tops of them a light greasing.
16. Season them with salt on both sides.
17. Make sure they are right side up, meaning the side that had the bone in it is facing down.
18. Pop those in and of it at 375 Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes.
19. While that’s going, we’re going to make our glaze.
20. Remove the seeds from a medium-sized red jalapeno or red Fresno chili.
21. You’re going to essentially julienne it, so cut it into thin threads.
22. Cut again, the other direction.
23. Run your knife through that a couple times just to get it fine.
24. We’re going to add to this six tablespoons of any soy sauce you like, four tablespoons of rice vinegar, and then two tablespoons of a nice honey.
25. We’re going to add our finely chopped chilies.
26. Heat that over medium-high, and bring that to a boil.
27. While that’s coming up, I have two cloves of garlic over here.
28. Pop those down, and we’re going to crush those.
29. Run your knife through it to get sort of a rough chop.
30. Let that sit.
31. Once this comes to a boil, you’re going to let it boil on medium-high for about a minute, and then reduce the heat to medium.
32. Mix together a half tablespoon of cornstarch, and a half tablespoon of water until combined.
33. Whisk that into your mixture, mix until thickened.
34. The heat is off.
35. I’m going to add my garlic.
36. Okay, we’re going to make our edamame broccoli.
37. Remove the florets from two crowns of broccoli.
38. You can break these into smaller pieces.
39. Prepare a half bag of frozen edamame.
40. Get a lemon prepared for myself by cheeking.
41. Moving over to the stove.
42. Heat a 12-inch stainless steel pan over medium high heat.
43. Add a little bit of vegetable oil.
44. Once that’s ripping hot and just about smoking a little bit, go in with your broccoli first, and your edamame.
45. Season it with some salt.
46. Do not toss the pan yet.
47. Let that one layer get a good char for about two to three minutes.
48. Give it a nice toss.
49. Keep searing.
50. Give it another toss of salt.
51. Reduce the heat to medium.
52. Let that cook, tossing occasionally.
53. After that, you’re then going to hit it with a little bit of lemon juice to taste.
54. Cut off the heat.
55. Give it a nice toss.
56. Keep that warm.
57. Pull the chicken out a little over halfway through its cook time.
58. Take your glaze, glaze each piece of chicken.
59. Pop that back in to the other half of cook time, 15 to 20 more minutes.
60. Okay, we’re going to make a quick pickle.
61. In a small bowl, combine three tablespoons of vinegar, one and a half tablespoons of water, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and one teaspoon of sugar.
62. Whisk that until it’s mostly dissolved.
63. We have two carrots.
64. You’re going to either julienne or very thinly slice these on a mandolin, however you want to do it.
65. Slice this lengthwise.
66. I cut my carrots in half.
67. Slice the carrots into thin, thin, thin planks.
68. Layer them up nicely.
69. Cut them lengthwise about the same width as they are thick.
70. As you finish this, add it to your pickle liquid.
71. Leave them in that until it’s time to serve.
72. If you want to add in some other toppings, slice green onions thin.
73. Stack them up like this, and cut them in a nice thin round.
74. Another great topping would be avocado.
75. Take your avo, cut it down the middle, all the way around.
76. Do the exact same thing, the other direction, so you’ve now quartered it.
77. Pop her open.
78. The one that’s stuck inside, give it a little love tap, twist, and remove.
79. Peel these quarters at the top.
80. To slice, you can use your knife or another knife held like a pencil.
81. Run along this thick, or as thin as you’d like it to be.
82. You can even fan it out at this stage.
83. Your chicken’s cooked.
84. You’re going to give it one final coating of your glaze on just the top part.
85. Evenly divide that sauce on every single thigh.
86. Use all it.
87. Pop it into the broiler for about one to three minutes or until it’s caramelized and a little bit of charred on top.
88. Finally, we assemble and serve.
89. First, a nice layer of your rice as much as a little as you like.
90. Slice chicken about a half inch thick and place it on top.
91. Add your cooked vegetables.
92. Add your quick pickled carrots.
93. Add your avocado.
94. Add flaky sea salt.
95. Add your green onion.
96. Optionally add pure kake.

Cooking Tips

I always put two cups. See how I can see straight to the bottom of that? That is a good sign. The other way you can tell if there’s enough water you take your finger. Go down into that water and just once your finger goes into that rice, second and touches the rice, pull it out. If the water line meets up to the tip of your cuticle, the end of your nail right here, you are good. That works with any amount of rice with your rice cooker.

You could do breast, you could do bone in, you could do skin on. This is to me the perfect middle ground, right? Because it’s just low enough in fact that you get a relatively low calorie bowl, but they’re almost impossible to overcook. Whereas chicken breast, yes, you’ll get better macros and most of the time I would probably use chicken breast if I’m on diet. But they’re way easier to overcook.

Try to go a little bit lighter than usual because you are going to glaze them. You don’t need to be too perfect here because after you get them somewhat chopped, you’re then going to run your knife through that a couple times just to get it fine.

You can put less, you can put a teaspoon, you can put a tablespoon. This is the most balanced for flavor, but it does add a little bit of carbohydrates to it.

Now, if you want to thicker, you can always add more cornstarch.

Never add your garlic while it’s boiling. It’s way too aggressive on the garlic, and it’s going to give it sort of like an accurate bitter flavor, and you don’t want that. You want this just to be warmer hot when you add it. Steep the garlic in it, like a nice tea.

Look, this is the easiest way to remove the florets. You’re just going to cut, tell you, snip through, and turn. Cut, turn. Cut, turn. Just keep turning and cutting.

You can give this for a soup, or you can throw it away. You can break these into smaller pieces. Try to keep them evenly sized.

You can leave the other half for when you make this again.

You can do non-stick, you can do castor, and not use what you got. If you’re watching your macros, use spray oil.

Do not toss the pan yet. Let that one layer get a good char. The rest of it doesn’t matter if it does or doesn’t. About two to three minutes. You should start to smell some of that char, a little bit of burning. That’s good. You want a little burn on this veg.

Reduce the heat to medium, and then just let that cook tossing occasionally. Just until the broccoli is part cooked, but still has a little bit of crunch left in it, and the edamame is hot. About five-ish minutes.

Don’t use all of it because we’re going to use a little bit more in a second.

If you’re going to julienne, get yourself a mandolin. You can also do this with your knife. Careful not to hurt your hand. If you have a julienne machine or like device, use that. This will take you some time if you don’t have practice doing it.

Even if you do this at the very last minute and just give them a light little toss, that’s fine too.

You don’t even show you how to do this, hopefully.

If you’re going to peel these quarters, please don’t peel towards the bottom peel at the top. Just makes it easier to peel. I don’t know why. It’s just the anatomy of the universe.

You can just run along this thick, or as thin as you’d like it to be. You can even fan it out at this stage if you want.

There’s a possibility you’ve finished this around the time that the rice cooker is done cooking, or maybe you’re really fast and you finish it beforehand. Just chill, get your mise and pasta done up during that time, or if it’s taking you a little longer, just go fluff your rice and let it sit on warm until you’re done prepping.

Use all it. Don’t be shy.

You don’t need to add or take anything away from this bowl.

Serving Suggestions

First, a nice layer of your rice as much as a little as you like. Your chicken, which will slice about a half inch thick and place it on top. Your cooked vegetables, your quick pickled carrots, your avocado, flaky sea salt, your green onion, optionally pure kake.

Out of here, dude. It’s been a long time since I’ve made something like this, and I’m mad at myself. We’re not doing it sooner. This was shockingly easy. We made it before we even done cooking the rice. It’s a whole meal. If you’re hungry and you want to go to lunch or a good dinner, not only is this going to deeply satiate you and you’re not going to be hungry after you beat this, but you’re going to feel good. You’re going to be light and airy. You’re going to feel like you can float off into the sky, like zoos, riding a lightning bolt to mount Olympus, and you’re shredded and your abs are vascular and but the best part about it is it tastes great. The chicken’s juicy. It’s not dry at all. It’s got a little bit of tinge of sweetness and almost like a smokiness, the spicy Fresno, the garliciness. I mean, that’s just the chicken. The rice is beautifully cooked, and the vegetables just kind of provide a nice fresh crunch. Some creaminess from the avocado, the green onion, adds of course some extra flavor, and then little pops of acidity to cut any amount of richness to keep that bowl nice and fresh from the crunchy, put pickled carrot, dude. It is complete as is. Within the amount of time that it takes to cook rice in a rice square, you too can make this bowl. It’s easy. It’s healthy. Customize it. Enjoy. Bye.