Next Post
Simple Thai Chicken Zucchini Meatball Curry.
This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
The easiest One Pan Chipotle Honey Chicken and Rice, our new weeknight staple. Chicken breasts or skinless chicken 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 honey chipotle chicken! 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 sauce, 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.
Watch the How-To Reel
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!
This post was originally published on August 16, 2023
The chicken came out so good! I couldn’t get the rice quite right, though. It cooked unevenly and was crunchy in some places and wet in others. I’ll just make the rice on the stove next time!
Thank you Emily! I’m so so glad you enjoyed the recipe! xT
Delicious! The rice under the chicken had such great flavor. It was an easy to make family meal. I used chicken thighs and omitted the zucchini. The hot honey sauce was a hit!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe Laura! Thanks for giving it a try! xT
Is the baking time for boneless or bone in thighs? Thank you
Boneless! xT
Ok I will start with, the flavors were soooooo yummy. However, I don’t know how you would ever have 6 chicken breasts in the pan- I used four and it was crowded. I also next time will double the sauce and use it to mix/flavor the rice. I didn’t find that there was enough to drip in to flavor the rice and zucchini, just my two cents!
Thank you for the input Katie, I appreciate it! xT
The chicken was great. The hot honey (made the least spicy as possible) was also great. I even subbed broccoli for the zucchini.
However the rice came out crunchy- I even added a cup of water bay the 30 min mark. Next time I’ll make the rice stovetop- and do everything else as written.
Thanks for letting me know! xT
Thanks for a great recipe! I added some salt to the water, checked the rice and added 10 minutes to cook time and rice was fluffy and tender. I held back a little on the adobo and next time will use more, such great smokey flavor! I added some cheese last 10 minutes also. Family loved the honey sauce.
Thank you so so much Bev!
Okay, this was fast and easy to make, and delicious! A real winner! I made it last night. There are only 3 of us, and I had 4 boneless, skinless thighs I used. I also didn’t have the basmati rice, so I used Minute rice instead, and it was perfect. Instead of water, I used 1 can of chicken broth, which I actually will do again, because the rice was perfect, and not under cooked at all, but the chicken was cooked through and still tender, but just so pretty, and with a nice tasty-coating crust on top. I have a toaster oven which I frequently use, rather than heat up the entire kitchen with my big oven. It cooked everything to perfection in about 35 minutes. To give it extra color, I used 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash to make the 2 cups. My husband can’t handle too much heat so I didn’t add too much chipotle, but the hot honey sauce made up for that, and was such a delicious topping/add-on! He put on what he wanted, and it just took the dish over the top! For just the 3 of us, 1 3/4 cups rice was a little too much. Next time I will just do 1 cup. I did use a smaller glass pan than the 9×13 called for, since there’s only 3 of us, and it worked great. Other than that I stuck right w/the recipe. And it was delicious! My picky daughter, who hates chicken, and avoids zucchini, even ate all of it. I will be adding this to our monthly rotation for sure. Thanks for another successful recipe, Tieghan!
Hey Liz! Thank you so so much for the feedback! I really appreciate it! xT
We made this chipotle honey chicken recipe and it is a keeper! We pared back a little in the super hot spices just because we are chicken. Next time we won’t. It was still so delicious and so easy and it’s just me and my husband so we ate it for days! It’s going into the rotation! Next time I’m going to try it with brown basmati and maybe add a little more zucchini! Thanks!!!
Thank you so much for the feedback Cristina! xT
This was so easy to make & tasted delicious! The whole family loved it!
Hi Nicole! Love to hear that!! Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! xT
If you use chicken broth instead of water will it give it more flavor?
It should give it a little bit more flavor!
This was OUTSTANDING! Super quick and easy to prepare and delicious flavor. Everyone in the family had 2nd’s. We omitted the Parmesan because of dairy intolerance and we didn’t even miss it! I lessened the heat too on the honey sauce since serving to kids.
Hi there! Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! xT
Making this tonight! Where does the chipotle in adobe go?!? Thanks in advance.
I came to the comments asking the same question. Looks like it notes “chipotle powder” in the steps, but chipotle in adobo in the ingredients. Going to run with chipotle in adobo only and see what happens!😃
Stop it. This was incredible. The flavors are amazing!!!!
Thank you soooo much!
This was delicious, thank you Tieghan! Super yummy and relatively quick. All the flavors meshed together well. The sweet heat was perfect!
Hi there! Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! xT
So freaking good!! Even my picky Partner loved it 🙂 thanks for another great recipe.
I normally use your baked goods recipe, this was my first savory & I’m totally hooked
Hi there! Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! So glad you enjoyed it! xT