Chicken and Rice in White Sauce

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Chicken and rice in white sauce or poached chicken served over rice with a delicious white sauce.

Tender poached chicken served with rice and a velvety white sauce, an easy to make and delicious family recipe.

This chicken and rice with white sauce recipe is a typical Saxon recipe of the Saxons living in Romania. An easy, straightforward recipe, requiring only a few, cheap, and easy to come by ingredients.

Yet, not one of all the Saxon people I know was able to give me a recipe, they all make it, but apparently they are all shy to spread it because they find it too simple (oh, it’s really nothing much, just boil some chicken and make a white sauce with raisins) or because not one of them actually has a written recipe, they all make it “dupa ochi” – “by eye”, so actually not following any specific instructions.

And another thing they all found important to tell me was that everything should be put separately on the plate: the meat directly from the soup, the rice which is cooked separately, and the sauce aside.

So, I recreated the recipe, which after all, was not that difficult, the recipe is really easy. This is my interpretation of the Saxon wedding rice dish. It is called wedding chicken because it is a dish that you will apparently get to eat at any Saxon wedding in Romania.

And if you would like to try more Saxon recipes, have a look at this Rhubarb Soup, these Roasted Potatoes with Pumpkin and Sausages, or these Potato Pancakes.

Ingredients

Chicken:

• Either one whole medium chicken or only legs quarters.
• If using quarters, you will need 4-5 depending on size.

Ingredients for poaching:

• Carrots, onion, leek, celeriac or celery sticks, cloves, juniper and allspice berries, peppercorns, and salt.
• You can leave out some of the spices if you don’t have them, but I never do, I think I buy whole cloves, allspice, and juniper berries just for making stock.

Rice:

• Plain long-grain rice.
• Basmati is great as well, very aromatic, and extremely quick cooking.
• I also often serve the chicken over brown rice, I love its heartiness and nutty flavor. Just keep in mind that it needs a longer cooking time, about 30 minutes.

White sauce:

• Some of the poaching liquid, which you can enrich with a chicken stock cube.
• Butter and flour.
• Raisins and tomatoes. Raisins might seem unusual for making a sauce, but they really do taste great in this combination, they make this dish special. If you don’t like raisins at all, you can leave them out though.

How to poach a chicken?

• Place the bird in a large pot.
• Add all the vegetables and spices.
• Cover with water, about 2 liter/ 5 cups or more to cover completely.
• It is important that the water is cold, otherwise, the stock will be cloudy. It will taste the same though.
• Slowly bring to a simmer, but don’t let it boil as that will make the stock cloudy as well.
• Simmer gently on low heat for about 1 1/2 hours until the meat is cooked through and tender.
• Carefully lift the bird from the poaching liquid.
• Strain the stock and discard the solids.
• Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut it into 8 pieces: 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 breasts, 2 wings. Pick the remaining flesh hanging on the bones as well and add to the sauce as well.

What to do with leftover poaching liquid?

• You will not need all the stock for making the white sauce.
• Let the stock cool completely and refrigerate it for up to 3-4 days.
• Or freeze in airtight containers for about 6 months. It will actually keep indefinitely, but it will lose some of its flavors.
• You can use it for making more white sauce or other sauces, for making soup (Chicken Potato Soup, for instance), for Turkey Fricassee, and so on.

How to serve?

As mentioned above, the traditional way of serving the chicken and rice with white sauce is to keep all the ingredients separated and assemble them on the plate.

Place the meat pieces on a large serving platter, the rice in a bowl, the sauce in another bowl and place them all on the table.

Serve with a simple green salad, carrot salad, white cabbage salad or cucumber salad.

For a typical Romanian/Saxon festive meal, serve Romanian Semolina Dumpling Soup as a first course, chicken and rice with white sauce as a main and Egg White Cake or Orange and Raisin Bundt Cake as dessert.

The soup should be made with the remaining poaching liquid, preferably enriched with some chicken stock cubes.

More chicken with sauce ideas:

Chicken in Cream Sauce

Chicken and Ham Pie

Hungarian Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings

Skillet Chicken in Garlic and Roasted Pepper Sauce