Buttery Baked Chicken with Veggie Rice
This is a low-and-slow Sunday kind of meal — a whole chicken I spatchcock and season heavy, with butter tucked right under the skin so it bastes itself low in the oven until it falls off the bone. While that's going, I prep a one-pot vegetable rice that soaks up a stick of butter — it takes its own turn in the oven at 350°F while the chicken rests under the foil. Buying the whole bird and cutting it down myself keeps the whole thing cheap, and the rice is where I sneak the veggies past anybody who claims they don't like them.
I shot this one with my girlfriend cooking right beside me — I'm teaching her the same steps I'm teaching you, from rubbing the oil in to stuffing the butter pockets, so bear with us. I'm not a chef, I'm a self-taught home cook, and this rice is one of those my-own-style recipes I landed on over time — I've honestly never seen anybody else make rice quite like it.
If you steal one trick from the video, make it the timing on the rice pot: butter in before the pot gets fully hot, vegetables in before that butter finishes melting — the vegetables and the rice absorb it. And I say who this is for right on camera: your next reunion, whatever gathering you have, or just a nice dinner. Do not gatekeep it — just let them know where you got it.
Watch me make it — video from my YouTube channel
The recipe
Buttery Baked Chicken with Veggie Rice
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, spatchcocked (spine removed)
- oil, to coat (enough to rub over both sides)
- salt, to taste
- Creole seasoning, to taste (I use Tony Chachere's — it has no salt in it)
- lemon pepper seasoning, to taste
- about 1 stick butter, in half-stick pieces, for under the skin (optional, if you want it more buttery and savory)
- limes, cut into wedges, as many as you like
- 1 stick butter (for the rice)
- celery, diced, to taste
- red bell peppers, diced, to taste
- 1/2 onion, diced (or a whole onion, depending on how you feel about onions)
- Creole seasoning, to taste (for the rice)
- salt, to taste (for the rice — don't be afraid to get a little heavy with it, but not too crazy)
- lemon pepper seasoning, to taste (for the rice)
- 1 cup rice, unwashed (do not wash it)
- 2 cups chicken broth
- parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)
How to Make It
- Cut the spine out of the whole chicken to spatchcock it.
- Pat the chicken dry so the oil and seasoning will stick.
- Place the chicken in the pan you will bake it in.
- Rub oil all over the chicken, then flip it and oil the back as well.
- Season the top with salt, then Creole seasoning, then lemon pepper seasoning, spreading the salt evenly.
- Flip the chicken and repeat the seasoning on the backside, getting all around it.
- (Optional) Slide a finger under the skin to make a small pocket and stuff in pieces of butter, spreading them out under the skin in several spots.
- Cut the limes into wedges and squeeze a little juice over the chicken, spreading it out so it doesn't knock off the seasoning in one spot; place the remaining wedges in the pan.
- Wrap the chicken and let it marinate for at least 2 hours so the flavor seeps into the meat (optional but recommended).
- Cover the chicken with foil and bake at 275°F for 2 hours (or, if you're short on time, at 350°F for about 1 1/2 hours).
- Remove the foil for the last 30 minutes and baste the chicken with its own juices to crisp it up.
- Put the foil back on after baking so the chicken doesn't dry out, then let it cool and break it apart — done right, it should be coming apart on its own, fall-off-the-bone tender and juicy.
- Dice the celery, red bell peppers, and onion; you can mix them together since they go in the same pot.
- (Optional) Chop the parsley for garnish.
- Heat a Dutch oven (or any oven-safe pot with a lid or foil) and, before it is fully hot, add 1 stick of butter.
- Before the butter finishes melting, add all the diced vegetables.
- Add Creole seasoning, salt, and lemon pepper seasoning, then mix in.
- Turn the heat up to get the pot hot and cook the vegetables fast.
- Add 1 cup of unwashed rice and toast it with the heat up high, keeping it moving, for about 5 minutes — you want the rice visibly toasted before any liquid goes in.
- Add 2 cups of chicken broth and make sure the rice is fully submerged.
- When it starts to bubble with a rolling boil, place the lid on the pot.
- Bake at 350°F for about 25 to 30 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed into the rice.
- (Optional) Garnish with the chopped parsley and serve alongside the chicken.
Curtis's Tips
- Buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself — it's a lot cheaper, and you get two legs, two thighs, two wings, and two breasts out of one bird.
- Pat the chicken dry first so the oil doesn't roll off and the seasoning sticks.
- Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning has no salt in it, so I add the salt separately — it looks like a lot going on, but it isn't. Use any Creole seasoning you have and season your chicken how you want to season it.
- Butter under the skin is optional but makes it very buttery. Keep the pocket small so the butter doesn't come back out.
- Limes are optional and to taste — you don't have to use as many if you don't have them on hand, but I like limes. They cook in the pan with the chicken for a zesty flavor.
- Marinating it wrapped for a couple of hours makes it more flavorful, but you can bake it right away.
- The slower and longer it cooks, the more tender it gets — the chicken literally falls off the bone.
- For the rice, switch up the vegetables to your own style if you don't like the ones I chose. I sneak onions in for kids who don't like them, because they can't tell once they're sautéed.
- Do not wash the rice — if you wash it, the rice won't thicken up the right way and it might come out too mushy.
- Add the stick of butter and put the vegetables in before the butter finishes melting — that's the trick. The vegetables and rice absorb the butter, so it isn't as much as it sounds.
- A Dutch oven is ideal because it heats evenly with no hot spots, but any oven-safe pot with a lid will work; use foil if you don't have a lid.
- Make sure all the liquid is fully absorbed before you eat the rice.
- Invest in soufflé bowls — they're great for portioning your prep.
Why this works
Patting the bird dry before the oil goes on is what makes everything after it stick — on wet skin the oil rolls right off and takes the seasoning with it. The oven handles the tender part: foil on at 275°F keeps the juices in, and the slower and longer it cooks, the more tender it gets — that's where fall-off-the-bone comes from. The last 30 minutes with the foil off, basting in its own drippings, crisps the skin; the foil goes back on afterward so nothing dries out. The rice gets about five minutes of toasting, heat up high, before the two cups of broth go in.
- Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning — it has no salt in it, which is why the coating looks heavier than it really is; the salt goes on first, separately.
- Butter, twice — half-sticks tucked under the skin (optional, but that's the buttery in the name), plus a whole stick in the rice pot that the vegetables and rice absorb.
FAQ
Do you wash the rice?
No — do not wash this rice. If you wash it, it won't thicken up the right way — it comes out watery and can go mushy. I've learned my lesson on that one.
Do I need a Dutch oven for the rice?
No. I love mine because it heats all around — no hot spots, even the top gets hot — and nobody paid me to say that. Any pot you can put in the oven with a lid works, and if you don't have a lid, use foil. I've been in every situation.
Can I skip the marinating?
You can — pop it straight in the oven if you need dinner now. But wrapping it and letting it sit at least two hours lets the flavor seep into the meat. If tonight's dinner is already decided, prep it and let it marinate for tomorrow.
What if I don't have two hours to bake the chicken?
Turn the oven up to about 350°F and cook it for about an hour and a half instead. Just know the trade: the slower and longer it cooks, the more tender it is — 275°F for the full two hours is how you get chicken that falls off the bone.
Can I use different vegetables in the rice?
Yes — celery, red bell pepper, and onion are just what I went with; if those aren't your style, choose your own. On the onion, half or whole depends on your tolerance — my kids don't like onions and I still sneak them in, because they can't tell once they're sautéed.
Estimated nutrition, per serving (recipe makes about 5 servings): ~920 calories · 53 g protein · 64 g fat · 31 g carbs. Computed from the ingredient list using standard reference values — an estimate, not a lab analysis; your exact brands and portions will vary.
