So I’m trying to cook with brown rice, but it just doesn’t act like white rice. Tonight I cooked a batch of chicken and rice, semi-encouraged by this recipe.
I cut up a couple of chicken legs, browned them, and took them out. Then I chopped up and sauted whatever vegetables were around. An onion and the diced up core of a bunch of celery. Three smashed cloves of garlic. A cup of brown basmati rice and two of broth. Salt. Cumin. Oregano. The latest trio of possibly the last tomatoes I will pick this year. A diced sweet red pepper. Finally I settled the chicken parts on top and turned it down to a simmer.
It took about an hour and a half to cook the rice. I understand that brown rice returns oils in the husk, so it doesn’t stick, but it doesn’t form a crust. Towards the end, the rice transitioned from way-too-chewy to porridge without any intervening step. Oh, the chicken was good and the tomatoes were good. The rice sort of blended in with everything, so I suppose this turned out okay.
But trying to cook brown rice in recipes that usually call for white rice is starting to not seem right. There must be some ways to cook it that work with what brown rice is for itself, not trying to be something else. `
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