Dig In Chick’n Sharing Rice
This one is a proper crowd-pleaser and honestly one of our go-to recipes when we want something a bit special without spending all evening in the kitchen. The mushrooms do something magic in the oven; they go golden and crispy and taste so much like chicken it genuinely surprises people every time. Baharat brings this warm, smoky depth that makes the whole dish feel really satisfying and a little bit exotic. It's the kind of thing you pile into the middle of the table and let everyone dig in, which is exactly our kind of cooking. Make it tonight and we promise it'll go straight into your regular rotation.
Before You Start
- Preheat oven to 200°C
- Large roasting tray lined with baking paper
- Large deep-sided frying pan with lid
- Blender
Ingredients
- 500g king oyster mushrooms
- 1 tbsp Baharat (Turkish spice mix)
- 1 tbsp plant-based chicken seasoning
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- 2 brown onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp plant-based butter
- 260g basmati rice
- 1 vegetable stock pot mixed with 500ml boiling water
- 3 tbsp rose harissa paste
- 10g coriander
- 10g parsley
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 green chilli
- 1 tsp cumin
- the juice of half a lemon
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 100g plant-based plain yoghurt
- 10g mint
- 10g coriander
- 4 tbsp crispy onions
Method
Prepare the mushrooms
- Cut the caps off the mushrooms and slice them finely.
- Rip the mushroom stems into 1cm thick strands.
- Add the ripped and sliced mushrooms to the baking-paper lined roasting tray and sprinkle over the Baharat and chicken seasoning.
- Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
- Massage everything together with clean hands and put the tray in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden and crisp.
Start the rice
- Peel and finely slice the brown onions.
- Peel and finely slice the garlic.
- Heat the large deep-sided frying pan over a medium heat with the plant-based butter.
- Once melted, add the sliced onions with a pinch of salt and cook for 8 minutes, stirring regularly, until softened and caramelised.
Meanwhile, make the zhoug - Peel the remaining garlic clove and trim the stalk off the green chilli.
- Add the peeled garlic and trimmed chilli to the blender with the coriander, parsley, ground cumin and lemon juice.
- Season with a pinch of salt and blitz until smooth.
- Stir in the olive oil and taste for seasoning, adding a little more salt if needed.
Back to the rice
- Once the onions are caramelised, add the sliced garlic and basmati rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat the rice grains in all of the butter.
- Pour over the stock and bring to the boil over a high heat.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover with the lid and Cook for an initial 8 minutes.
Finish the rice
- Once the rice has had 8 minutes, remove the lid from the pan and dollop over the harissa.
- Gently marble the harissa through the rice, trying not to fully mix it in.
- Put the lid back on and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until all the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked.
Prepare your toppings and serve
- Pick the mint and coriander leaves from their stalks, throw the stalks away.
- Once everything is done, remove the lid from the rice.
- Top with a few big dollops of yoghurt and zhoug.
- Gently marble the zhoug into the yoghurt.
- Scatter the crispy chicken over the top, then sprinkle over the crispy onions and coriander and mint leaves.
- Season a grind of black pepper and dig in!
Tips & Variations
- Get those mushrooms really dry: If your mushrooms are at all damp before they go in the oven, they'll steam instead of crisp up. Give them a quick pat with some kitchen paper before you massage in the seasoning and you'll get much better results.
- Make it your own: We love this with a big dollop of dairy-free yoghurt on top and some fresh coriander scattered over. A squeeze of lemon right at the end really lifts everything too.
- Feeding a bigger crowd: This recipe scales up really easily. Just use a bigger tray and make sure the mushrooms have plenty of space, as overcrowding is the enemy of crispy. You might need to cook them in two batches.
Why This Works
The trick here is how you prep the mushrooms. Ripping the stems into strands and slicing the caps finely means you get loads of different textures, some bits go chewy and almost meaty, others go properly crispy at the edges. The Baharat and chicken seasoning combo is doing a lot of heavy lifting too, giving you that savoury, spiced flavour that makes this taste way more complex than it actually is. Trust us; don't rush the oven time. That extra few minutes getting them golden is absolutely worth it.