Lemon Chicken Ricotta Bowl
Lemon-marinated chicken over ricotta and grains.
Bright, punchy, ready before you can be arsed ordering takeaway. Seared chicken over warm rice, cool cucumber and tomato, a soft pile of lemon-loosened ricotta, then a proper drizzle of olive oil and lemon to tie it all together. High protein, gentle on the wallet, big on flavour.
Nutrition · per serving
Method
- 1
Dry brine and dry off
Pat the chicken bone-dry with kitchen paper, then hit both sides with the sea salt. Leave it on a plate while the pan heats — even a couple of minutes helps the surface dry out so you get colour instead of steam. No pepper yet, pepper hates a hot dry pan and turns bitter on you.
- 2
Sear it properly
Get the pan ripping hot, add the rice bran oil (high smoke point, that's why we're using it), and lay the chicken away from you. Do not fiddle. 3–4 minutes a side until it's deep golden and cooked through — thickness dictates, not the clock.
- 3
Rest, do not skip
Off the heat, rest the chicken 3 minutes on a board. Cut too early and the juice ends up on the chopping board instead of in the bowl — you paid for that juice, keep it.
- 4
Build the cold side
While it rests: warm the rice, dice the cucumber and tomato, and loosen the ricotta with half the lemon juice and a pinch of salt so it spoons out soft instead of chalky. Give the tomato a tiny pinch of salt too — brings it to life even if it came straight out the fridge.
- 5
Plate and finish
Rice down first, then chicken sliced across the grain, ricotta in the middle, cucumber and tomato either side. Drizzle the extra-virgin olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice over the lot. NOW the pepper — cracked fresh over the top, where you'll actually taste it. Taste before you add any more salt.