Chicken and cauliflower rice flavored with cajun seasoning and roasted to perfection. This is one of the healthy meals I truly enjoyed during my Whole30 adventure.
The adult human body is 50-65% water. My brother told me mine is composed of 80% green tea. I consume a lot of green tea. Let’s say an average of 1-1.5 liters everyday. Then, water. Don’t ask me – I just love the comfort I get from drinking green tea. Need something to go with a slice of cake? Green tea. Need something to drink while watching TV? I could use a cup or two. When calculating my expenses? I’ll get the whole kettle, please! I am not sure if the word is comforting or addicting.
If my body is composed of 80% green tea, maybe the 15% is for cajun seasoning (let’s call it CS). I have never met CS before. Or if did, I didn’t know about it. When we met, it was love at first taste. It was like the goddess Aphrodite made me fall in love with CS instantly. I wanted to eat something with CS every single day. But most days, I end up with roasted potatoes. If I should describe it in one word, I would say ‘addictive‘. But I can’t eat anything cajun roasted without my harissa-tahini sauce. They are just so perfect together that they can even marry each other!
Sad to say, bottled tahini can be a bit pricey. I might break the bank when I continue with the CS and tahini marriage. So I had to give CS and tahini some space. CS has to stay, and tahini needs to leave… for now. I have to pair CS with CF (cauliflower).
I have been eating cauliflower rice for a while now, so I’ve thought of roasting CF with CS and chicken. But instead of frying the riced cauli, I roasted them together with the chicken.
The dish turned out really good – the cauli rice was so tasty given the fact the I have coated them with cajun seasoning, olive oil, ghee and garlic. The juices of the chicken also added good flavor to the cauli rice. The cauli rice and chicken were roasted to perfection.
This can be done in separate baking pans, but I have only one oven rack so I fit them in one pan (pictured above). When the cauli rice was cooked, I removed the chicken, transferred to a plate and polished off the cauli rice and moved to a serving plate. Then I returned back the chicken to the pan and again placed back into the oven to cook thoroughly.
This is one of the perfect meals I enjoyed while on the Whole30 adventure.
I am bringing these at Fiesta Friday #191. Thanks to our Angie and to our co-hosts this week, Aunt Juju and Antonia.
Whole30 Cajun Chicken and Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp Cajun seasoning
- 3 cups riced cauliflower (about 4 cups florets)
- 4 chicken pieces (preferably chicken thighs and drumsticks)
- Parsley, for garnish
Instructions:
Prep tip: Riced cauliflower and chicken can be marinated (placed in a baking pan) overnight inside the fridge with me rest of the ingredients.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- In a small bowl, combine olive oil, ghee, garlic and Cajun seasoning.
- In a baking pan, add in riced cauliflower. Pour in half of the oil Cajun-oil mixture and give it a good mix.
- Rub the other half of the oil mixture all over the chicken, adding a good pinch of salt on each chicken pieces.
- Place the chicken over the riced cauliflower.
- Bake the cauliflower rice for 25-30 minutes. After that, remove the chicken from the pan. Transfer the cooked cauliflower rice to a plate and put back the chicken pieces to the pan. Return back inside the oven and bake for further 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
- Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the oven. Place the cauliflower rice (season with salt, if necessary) on a serving plate, top with chicken. Garnish with parsley if desired.
Notes:
Chicken and cauliflower can be placed in separate baking pans, making it easier to remove the cooked cauliflower rice. It mixed them in one baking pan so the cauliflower rice will get the juice from the chicken.
You can make a large batch and keep some in the fridge up to two days for your next meal. Keeping them in the freezer will make them last longer.
I made only a small batch and kept the half of the dish and enjoyed after 2 days.
