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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
Epic fail – I wound up with crunchy rice and super spicy chicken. Wouldn’t make again.
Oh no I’m so sorry about that! Is there anything you did differently? xT
Delicious! I actually doubled the chipotle seasoning and marinated chicken overnight before cooking them. The chicken got nice kick and great flavor. The honey sauce is so delicious that I was licking the plate. We will be making this again soon.
Love to hear this recipe was enjoyed! xT
Made this tonight and the flavors of the chicken are outstanding. The rice and zucchini were very bland though so I felt like I had missed something. The zucchini was also soggy not golden brown like the photo. I will definitely make this again with a couple of tweaks. I will definitely salt the rice and water in the dish before adding the chicken. I may even mix some of the spices that go on the chicken and sprinkle them on the rice. I will also use broccoli instead. Definitely a keeper and I would love more easy meals like this. I absolutely love all of your recipes that I have made, but most prep is very time consuming because I have to at least double the recipes for my family, lots of chopping usually. This was so easy!
Thank you sooo much for giving the recipe a try! I am so glad you enjoyed it! xT
WOW. Great flavor and easy. Wife loved it and wanted it add to the dinner rotation plus I would service to company. I did add small sweet red pepper to add color to the dish. Another great recipe.
Thank you sooo much for giving the recipe a try! I am so glad you enjoyed it! xT
Loving your quick and easy era!
Thank you Tash! xT
Delicious. It was easy to make and will be added to a rotation of go-to meals. I made it for our dinner club, and everyone loved it.
Hey Lena! Thank you sooo much for giving the recipe a try! I am so glad you enjoyed it! xT
YUM! A few easy adjustments made this dairy-free for us and it’s a new favorite for sure. So easy, and minimal kitchen cleanup! We’ll be back to this one 😍
Thank you sooo much for giving the recipe a try! I am so glad you enjoyed it! xT
Would jasmine rice work instead of basmati?
Hi Sarah! I think the two are similar enough that it should still turn out well!
Another incredible recipe. Its easy to make but tastes like was a longer labor of love. The honey sauce is killer on the chicken as well as the rice. Awesome.
Thank you for giving this recipe a try! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! xT
This looks so good!! Wondering, Can you use broccoli instead of zucchini for this recipe?
Hi there! I think the broccoli would need some more time to cook so I probably wouldn’t recommend that!
Do you have an estimate of how many pounds of chicken instead of how many pieces?
Hi there! It would be about 1.5 pounds-2 pounds chicken! xT
These. are. insane.
SOOOO DELICIOUS. The perfect spice, SO easy to throw together. Wowowowowiwow. Tieghan does it again 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Hi! Thanks so much! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! xT
AMAZING!! I cooked the rice a little longer and instead of the chipotle in adobo, I just added a teaspoon of Chile powder. So good!!
Thank you so much Alex! xT
Family loved it! This recipe was so easy to make and I loved that I could prep it ahead of time and throw it together in the oven after work for a quick weeknight meal. Not only was it so quick to prep and bake but it had so much flavor and tastes so fresh! My husband does not care for rice but loved this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly except I ran out of honey so used agave instead. So good and so easy!! Would love more recipes like this!
So glad you and your fam loved this recipe! Thank you so so much! xT
This one had great flavor! The chicken got a nice crisp that I wasn’t expecting and the hot honey sauce was outstanding. Even with the extra time and water my rice could have been more done, but I didn’t want to continue cooking the chicken. I like spice but I used less hot sauce and seasoning than the recipe called for and it was still very spicy. I recommend you use less, taste and add more if needed. Finally, the zucchini were kind of an odd addition. I would cook the rice separate next time and leave out the zucchini!
Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! Have a lovely day! xT