This Rice Salad with Chicken and Pistachios is tasty, satisfying everyday cooking. Although you can serve it at any temperature, I like it best warm, but not hot.

Everyday Cooking

Thinking of this as a main dish, it’s not quite fancy enough for a special occasion. It also might not be my first thought when having friends over for something casual – but that depends on the context. It’d be rather exceptional on a picnic table, alongside some homemade iced tea, veggies and hummus, a fantastic cheese, and a simple, homemade sheet cake for dessert. In that context, I’d consider it excellent everyday fare.

Ingredients

• Although you can buy shelled pistachios, the ones you have to shell yourself taste better. I swear they do.
• Extra-virgin olive oil is my go-to everyday oil, so I always have it around. But because it’s a workhorse, I often buy a variety that’s not too expensive, without being cheap. The flavor and texture of the oil in this salad will be high up in the profile, so you’ll want to break out your freshest, very best, and probably most expensive oil. Don’t underestimate the importance of this.
• The honey helps take the edge off the lemon, which can seem sharp in this context. If the lemon in the dressing seems to need more salt, consider that what it may actually need is more honey. But don’t add so much that the dressing becomes sweet!
• If the rice and chicken are leftover, it shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes to prep the ingredient list. The prep time I listed assumes you’re going to be cooking the rice and chicken as part of the prep.

Cooking Tips

• If you’re making the rice from scratch for this recipe, consider lightly toasting the rice in oil before adding it to the Instant Pot (or whatever other rice-cooking method you follow). Also, consider that making more rice than you need would be an efficient way to do some meal-prep.
• You could easily use leftover rice for this dish. In that case, you’d want to re-warm it beforehand.
• If you’re making the chicken from scratch for this recipe, consider pan-frying it and finishing it off (to 160ºF) in a 350ºF oven. (Do not take food safety advice from me.) Take care to get a great sear on both sides of the breasts; the color and flavor will be welcome in the salad. Making more chicken than you need would be a pro move; you’ll have no problem finding things to do with it in the coming days.
• You could easily use leftover chicken for this dish. In that case, you’d want to re-warm it beforehand.
• Consider serving this salad on a bed of fresh, impeccably dry, red leaf lettuce leaves.

Serving Sizes

I like this as a main or a starter, rather than a side, because of the heavy dose of chicken. So when I say you’ll get four servings, I’m taking about main-dish, lunch-sized servings.

Social Learning

Rice salad is new to me, but apparently, not new to the rest of the world. The type I’ve created here is along the lines of a Mediterranean “Salade de Riz.” In that vein, consider swapping or adding in tuna, boiled eggs, chickpeas, beans, nuts, other grains, or cheese.  

Rice Salad with Chicken and Pistachios

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker, “Rice Salad with Chicken and Pistachios,” in The Joy of Cooking (New York: Scribner, 1997), 225. Thank you, Kesor. Thank you, ⌘+C. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #2 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs. 

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